As you may have heard, yesterday the CDC released a recommendation encouraging young men and boys to get the HPV vaccine. HPV can lead to genital warts but otherwise may have no noticeable set of symptoms. Up until this point, the vaccine has only been marketed towards young women and girls to prevent cervical cancer. Well, new research suggests that not only does the vaccine reduce the risk for cervical cancer, it also reduces the risk of anal, throat, mouth and PENILE cancer! Who knew!?
In addition, other sources suggest that throat cancers from viruses (such as HPV) are seen more often in men than women (Source, You Beauty). Symptoms of HPV related throat cancer include trouble breathing and a hoarse voice (Source). Guys, this means that not only should your female loved ones consider getting the vaccine, so should you! As with any important health information it’s best to speak with your primary care physician before getting any treatment. You should also check out the CDC page here for more information about HPV.
If you’re concerned about the safety of the vaccine, consider this quote from Dr. Anne Schuchat of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases:
“The committee also undertook extensive review of data on vaccine safety. Through middle of September nearly 40 million doses of HPV vaccine have been distributed in the United States. The clinical trials that have been carried out in smaller numbers have shown the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to be safe for males as well as for females. The most common adverse events or side effects that can occur following HPV vaccination include injection site reaction, headache and fever, and those reactions have tended to be mild or moderate in intensity” (Source: Decoded Science).