It's not just for young women anymore: Men up to age 22 should get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center found that more than two-thirds of adults have been infected with at least one kind of HPV. But the vaccine, a series of three injections, protects you from four strains of HPV that cause genital warts and cancer of the anus, mouth/throat, and penis. In fact, the treatment could cut your risk of genital warts by up to 90 percent, per a recent study in New England Journal of Medicine.
The policy to vaccinate men has been in place since 2011, says Anna Giuliano, Ph.D., director of the Center for Infection Research in Cancer at Moffitt Cancer Center. But many guys miss out on the protection because they don't know it applies to them, Giuliano says.
Even though it's ideal to get the vaccine when you're young--before you start having sex and become exposed to HPV--it's still effective for 21-year-olds, says Giuliano. (Yes, even if you've had lots of sex.) That's because even if you already have one kind of HPV, the shots will shield you from three other kinds of the virus, which will still slash your risk for warts and cancer, she says.
In fact, the vaccine is safe for men all the way up to age 26. The CDC recommends that gay and bisexual men up to that age get the shots, because they have an increased risk for HPV, Giuliano says.
Need more encouragement? Google "penectomy." That's the surgery sometimes necessitated by penile cancer. Now go see your doc.
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