Evidently, the company initially selected women because of the proven link between HPV and cancer – and if you want to get approval, this was probably the strongest benefit that they could do a study on.

I don’t know if HPV has an association with any male cancers. In any case, the company would need to perform clinical studies in men. How easy it would be to get an approval in males past the FDA I couldn’t say.

I don’t know how the drug is marketed in other countries where it is approved for males.

Since the drug is only approved for females in the U.S., I’m reasonably certain the drug maker can only tout its benefits for females — at least in advertising and marketing promotion in the U.S.

But please don’t put this in the same class as early childhood vaccines against measles, mumps, etc, This is a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease.

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01885.html

FDA Approves Expanded Uses for Gardasil to Include Preventing Certain Vulvar and Vaginal Cancers
September 12, 2008

“There is now strong evidence showing that this vaccine can help prevent vulvar and vaginal cancers due to the same viruses for which it also helps protect against cervical cancer,” said Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., M.P.H., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “While vulvar and vaginal cancers are rare, the opportunity to help prevent them is potentially an important additional benefit from immunization against HPV.”…

…Among females who tested negative for HPV types 16 or 18 at the start of the study, Gardasil was highly effective in preventing these types of HPV-related precancerous vulvar and vaginal lesions, which are considered to be the precursors for cancer. In the control group that did not receive the vaccine, 10 individuals developed precancerous vulvar lesions and nine developed precancerous vaginal lesions, all related to HPV types 16 or 18. No one in the Gardasil group developed either kind of precancerous lesion due to HPV types 16 or 18.

There’s been a lot of coziness between the company and certain state legislators to force mandatory vaccination, which is very good for the company’s sales.

Hadn’t encountered before any mention of it being used in males – but the same questions remain.

The CDC is clear on what causes HPV. And while I’m no Planned Parenthood apologist, I believe one of the PP pamphlets that you link to says on its first page that the best prevention against HPV (as with all STDs) is abstinence.

Do you believe that any person/group that promotes education beyond advising abstinence is promoting promiscuity? I know that there are many who do believe that, but that should still be irrelevant to the use of Gardisal.

It is within our power to reduce cervical cancer deaths just like we have the ability to prevent the virus that killed the child in my original post. If there is a reasonable rationale for not doing this, I have not been made aware of it.