- I would like to add:
- HPVs are extremely common: 80% of men and 90% of women will have at least one strain in their lives. Unless you plan to remain completely celibate, you are likely to contract a strain.
- Sooner is better, but vaccination can be done at any age. Guidelines often lag behind, but vaccination makes sense even if you are currently HPV-positive. While it won't clear an existing infection, it protects against different strains and reinfection (typically body removed HPV in 1-2 years). See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38137661/
- HPV16 is responsible for a large number of throat cancers (around 50% in smokers and 80% in non-smokers!). This affects both men and women. Vaccinating men is important for their own safety and to reduce transmission to their partners.
- It has really been a great success in Denmark.
In the 1960s, more than 900 people were diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, corresponding to more than 40 cases per 100,000 Danes.
Today, that number is below 10 per 100,000 nationwide – and among women aged 20 to 29, only 3 out of 100,000 are affected. This is below the WHO’s threshold for elimination of the disease.
by coreyh14444
4 subcomments
- Just a quick point as an American living in Denmark, one of the reasons government programs like this work so well is everything is delivered digitally. We have "e-boks" https://en.digst.dk/systems/digital-post/about-the-national-... official government facilitated inboxes so when they need to notify you of vaccinations or whatever else, it arrives to your inbox. And basically 100% of residents use these systems.
- I don’t get it. Everyone online gives advice like “Ask your doctor to get the vaccine even if you’re male” but the pharmacies here in SF refused to give it to me. They said that it’s not indicated for a 35+ yo male.
So I get the theory of this thing. But has anyone actually tried this? Finally I got OneMedical to prescribe it for me for some $1.2k at which point I decided I’ll just get it abroad during some planned travel.
I decided years ago I’d do this because I was going to have girls and I wanted to minimize my daughters’ risk of cancer.
by AnotherGoodName
1 subcomments
- +$100k per man vaccinated in effective economic outcomes (less cancer, longer lives, less debilitating conditions) for those who needed to hear this.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2759438/
Want to boost the economy massively at next to no cost? HPV vaccinations are incredible.
- Lots of viruses are really oncogenic. The real success here is the ability of Denmark to track effectiveness. It sounds crazy but most countries do not have electronic health record capability to measure the effect of many interventions at population scale. Once good EHRs are rolled out, we will be able to double down on effective interventions, like this one, and vice versa.
- Anecdote time (and some info from real life EMTs and Oncologist). I just recently “won” the cancer lottery related to this.
Never had the HPV vaccine. Honestly thought it was only for young girls (didn’t spare topic a thought, zero time investigating).
80-90% of adults gets some form of HPV during lifetime. Often several strains. Each have different risks of cancer. Even if you’re married - if you or your partner experience a severely stressful period- it might reactivate.
Most people’s immune systems clears HPV, and makes it dormant. (Mine likely doesn’t see HPV as a threat.
Long term (10y+?) exposure to active HPV cause cancer.
If you can, at least do your very best to avoid the cancer nightmare. Take the vaccine. Worst case it protects you from being a vector.
It’s an imperfect insurance from 3-4 months in/out of hospitals, scans, blood work, from chronic dry mouth,all food tasting very bad, issues with energy, possible bone death (that you suddenly have to monitor every day for the test. Oh, and any alcohol or smoking after having had this increases risk of recurrence by 30-50%
- A comment with an article citing published medical literature on risks associated with this type of vaccine was flagged and hidden. Why? I don't know the author nor am I a medical doctor to understand the topic at depth, so it's a genuine question. Was it misleading? If so, how? That's what the comment was asking, actually, if there were counter-points to the text, which was favorable to live vaccines (e.g. shingles) but critical of those developed with other methods. Is there no merit to that? I genuinely don't know, and since it seems impossible to discuss the topic, it's hard to say.
- First hand experience here, 6 years ago I had tonsil cancer from HPV16. It SUUUCKED. Doing well now though thank god. I’ve had a hard time getting decent info even from my oncology team in the years since as to whether I should even consider getting the vaccine now. I am 45, married and my wife of 5 years (yes we went through all of that while engaged) has gotten her series of shots 3 years ago.
I have heard from my Drs that as obviously I have already had at least the one strain, there isn’t really a point in getting the shots now. Is there any newer info regarding this semi specific situation that anyone is aware of?
by shevy-java
0 subcomment
- The data is IMO quite convincing. Harald zur Hausen pointed this out decades ago already; this is another data point that adds to the theory which back then he proposed was fairly new (not that viruses cause cancer, that is much older knowledge, but specifically the role of some HPV strains; Harald died about 2 years ago).
by Traubenfuchs
6 subcomments
- Everyone already knows!
HPV vaccination leads to massive reduction in nasopharyngeal, penile and rectal cancer in men.
The focus of messaging around HPV vaccination on ovarian cancer, female fertility and the age limitations for recommendations / free vaccination in some places are nothing short of a massive public health failure and almost scandal.
Just truthfully tell the boys their dicks might fall off and see how all of them quicklky flock to the vaccine.
by strideashort
1 subcomments
- Title is misleading
> Among the 859 unvaccinated women, HPV16/18 prevalence was 6%, 5%, and 6%
and
> However, about one-third of women still had HPV infection with non-vaccine high-risk HPV types, and new infections with these types were more frequent in vaccinated than in unvaccinated women.
so… real summary is “hpv vaccination correlates with lower infection for vaccine specific HPV strain, but does not impact / potentially worsens overall high-risk HPV infections”
so what exactly is solved here, supposedly?
not to mention, the study does not compare helth outcomes, which is the only meaningful measure.
by garbawarb
1 subcomments
- > Infection with HPV types covered by the vaccine (HPV16/18) has been almost eliminated. Before vaccination, the prevalence of HPV16/18 was between 15–17%, which has decreased in vaccinated women to < 1% by 2021. However, about one-third of women still had HPV infection with non-vaccine high-risk HPV types, and new infections with these types were more frequent in vaccinated than in unvaccinated women.
I wonder if we'll those non-vaccine strains will eventually become the most prevalent.
by michaelcampbell
0 subcomment
- We got my son vaxxed for this when he was able, and the doctor doing it was quite reluctant to do it. (US; ~2001)
- At what age can you start getting vaccinated?
- Absolutely completely off the topic at hand here, but it seems like the bot and troll level goes up a lot on topics like this. A lot of people use HN data for training data, stats analysis, etc. Anyone out there figure out some good tools for trying to detect the bots in a thread like this? There are probably some good tells with throw-away accounts, account age, etc etc. In a world where misinformation is algorithmically generated and comments are a prime way that happens getting tools that can detect it is important. Hmm if there are good tools I wonder if they could be built into a plugin somehow.
- Another angle of why vaccinating men is important is because gay men (or more precisely those who participate in oral-penile or penile-anal sex) are at risk for these cancers, but if we only vaccinate women then we do not protect this group of men.
Also on my soapbox it's an absolute absurdity that we still do not have any HPV test for men.
by andrewmcwatters
2 subcomments
- The only thing I've never understood about the HPV vaccination is that for some reason after a certain age as an adult in the United States, no primary care provider appears to recommend you get it in addition to your regular vaccination schedule.
Is the idea that you're married and have a single partner and the risk factor has dropped below a certain percentage of the population where there's little reason to recommend getting it if the likelihood is that you've already acquired HPV in your lifetime thus far?
Every other vaccination appears to be straightforward, besides HPV, and I don't know why. I've also never heard a clear answer from a physician.
Is it just that our vaccination schedules are out of date in the United States? This seems to be the most likely culprit to me.
by brewcejener
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- [dead]
by nullorempty
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- [flagged]
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by albatross79
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by zerofor_conduct
1 subcomments
- [flagged]
- plagueinc
by wewewedxfgdf
0 subcomment
- Do the conspiracy theorists believe it or not?
- This is one of the many reasons I think medicine is full of people who are good at memorizing but are outright stupid when it comes to problem solving and logic.
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