[Traubenfuchs]

The continuing focus on cervical cancer and women’s sexual health in the context of HPV (vaccination) is my biggest pet peeve ever.

HPV causes penile, anal, mouth-throat and cervical cancer.

I‘d argue that all of those cancers are much, much worse than cervical cancer. After all, they can cause permanent disfigurement, chronic pain, inability to ever speak again and loss of the penis. Infertility? Woe is me!

Anyone who is not celibate should really get the HPV vaccines. Tell a teenager he‘s risking to lose his dick and he‘s gonna get vaccinated tomorrow.

[acdha]

I agree it should be more broadly recognized as not being only for women but cervical cancer causes something like 340k deaths vs. the other ones being 1-2 orders of magnitude lower so it’s not surprising that attention has been focused there.

https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac...

[ceejayoz]

> Infertility? Woe is me!

Well, and a couple hundred thousand deaths annually worldwide. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cervical-ca...

[ziddoap]

>Infertility? Woe is me!

Even if this was the only issue cervical cancer potentially caused (it’s not, you forgot death, among others), this is a really insensitive comment.

Awareness of other cancers doesn’t need to come at the cost of reducing cervical cancer awareness. Seems like a really immature thing to have a pet peeve about.

[ksenzee]

Cervical cancer kills. I don’t think you mean “it’s worse for a man to lose his penis than for a woman to die” but that’s how it’s coming across. And that’s unfortunate because your point is entirely valid: men are not nearly terrified enough of HPV.

[Benanov]

I saw it as more along the lines of "this is why men should get it" - the context is already established that HPV should scare men and here's why...

[tasuki]

My partner died of cervical cancer at 30 years old. I'm now raising a toddler by myself.

Is this the place where I can tell you to fuck off?

[tick_tock_tick]

They are offering the HPV vaccine for boy too. Hell my doctor suggested it, and I got it, a couple of years ago as a late 20s male.

[mac-mc]

10 to 20 years ago, you got a lot of pushback if you wanted this vaccine as a male, with some insinuations about gayness, or it being "too late" if you wanted it in your early 20s when you heard about this benefit. To this day I don't have it as a result.

Maybe today that has been fixed.

[LiquidPolymer]

Many, many women have died from cervical cancer.

[cmrdporcupine]

Here in Ontario the vaccine is given by default to everyone, male or female.

[bregma]

When my kids were in school that was certainly not the case. It must have changed recently.

[bregma]

100% of all cervical cancer patients already don't have a penis. There are about 10 times the number of deaths each year from cervical cancer as there are from penile cancer, and scooping out parts of your innards is not just infertility but is far more invasive and liable to complications than just slicing off your dangly bits. Sounds a bit like an argument from misogyny.

[tasty_freeze]

> Woe is me!

Do you think infertility is the only consequence of cervical cancer? Do you mock children with with leukemia saying, "Oh, you feel a little tired? Get over yourself?"

For many people treatment goes smoothly and the can get on with their lives. For some they get treatment, it comes back, they get more treatment, it comes back, and they die, and there is a range of options in between. Maybe they don't die but they can no longer have intercourse. Maybe the financial strain of many rounds of treatment puts them in life-changing debt.

Don't be so glib with the misfortune of other people.