Monday, December 17, 2018

HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention for Boys, Too!

"Every year in the United States, over 13,000 men get cancers caused byhuman papillomavirus (HPV). HPV vaccination could prevent most of these cancers from ever developing.  
HPV is a common virus that infects both men and women. HPV is so common that 8 out of 10 people will get an HPV infection at some point in their lifetime. In most cases, HPV goes away on its own. But, sometimes, HPV infections don’t go away, and can cause certain cancers and other diseases.
HPV infections can cause cancers of the back of the throat (oropharyngeal cancer), anus, and penis in men. Cancers of the back of the throat have surpassed cervical cancer as the most common type of cancer caused by HPV. Unlike cervical cancer in women, there are no recommended screening tests for the other types of cancers that HPV causes, so they may not be found until they cause health problems.

HPV vaccine is recommended for preteen boys 11 or 12 years old.

Boys, like girls, should get the two doses of the HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12 to protect against cancer-causing HPV infections long before they are ever exposed.  The HPV vaccine series can be started as early as age 9, and should be finished before boys turn 13 years old.
If you haven’t already vaccinated your preteen or teen boys, it’s not too late. If your teen is 15 or older, and hasn’t started the HPV vaccine series, he will need 3 shots given over 6 months.."
HPV and boys

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