Parents of little boys have a responsibility — and it’s not just to raise good men.
According to a new study published in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology this month, a single choice moms and dads make when their sons are tweens could have a major impact on women later.
“We do not have to be losing 350,000 people globally to cervical cancer each year,” said study senior author Abba Gumel, a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland.
More than 90% of of cervical cancer is caused by HPV, or human papillomavirus. HPV can also cause cancer of the vagina and vulva in women, the penis in men, and the anus and parts of the throat and tongue in both.
It’s transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, usually of a sexual nature — and while it can show up as warts, it most often has no symptoms, meaning many people don’t even realize they have it.
That’s why most doctors recommend getting vaccinated, since HPV can lie dormant for years before eventually causing cancer.
The ideal age to start is between 11 and 12 when immune response is strong, with patients getting two doses between six months and a year apart.
If you or your child missed that window, vaccination is still recommended up until age 26 — but if starting after age 15, a third dose is needed.
Last year, 70.1% of 17-year-old girls in the US were up to date on their HPV vaccines, while 82.4% had gotten only one dose.
The numbers were close but slightly lower for teen boys: 66.2% were up to date, and 81.1% have received one dose.
The new research underlines the importance of keeping male vaccination rates up and not just vaccinating females. Though men themselves are susceptible to fewer cancers caused by HPV, they are at risk — and they are carriers of the virus.
“Vaccinating boys reduces the pressure of having to vaccinate a large proportion of females,” said Gumel, because it helps achieve herd immunity. “It makes elimination more realistically achievable.”
In South Korea, where the study was conducted, only girls get the HPV vax. The researchers estimate that the country could eliminate HPV-related cancers in 70 or so years if boys got the jab, too.
Several other countries have also mainly targeted girls with their vaccination efforts, including Japan, India, Romania, Bulgaria, and several African countries like Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. France, Greece and Poland have only started recommending it for boys in recent years.
The good news is, the US has been recommending the vaccine for boys since 2011 (and girls since 2006). Due to these efforts, the country is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030, according to the Association of American Cancer Institutes — and getting rid of other HPV-related cancers isn’t far behind.
Still, American vaccination rates fall lower than some other countries, including the UK, Australia, Norway and Portugal.
