Should boys be vaccinated against HPV? This is the new hot button question after the Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil use in men last week. The New York Times recently reported that advisory groups recommended boys between the ages of 9 and 25 soldier into doctor's offices and get injected with the costly, but effective, shot. Sex Does A Body Good

Gardasil, on the market since 2006, was previously just recommended for women as it protects against two strains of HPV that if undetected can lead to 90 percent of cervical cancer cases. While the shot prevents … Read More

Hey, remember when big pharma came out with a drug that was a vaccine against HPV/ cervical cancer? And the only reason not to take it was that maybe it was an encouragement to have sex, possibly sans protection. It was sort of a red state/ blue state issue along the lines of abstinence-only sex ed. But curiously, we never heard about any of the negative effects of the drug. Oh, there has to be side-effects, right? Even cold medication has that sweet medicine-head side-effect. Beer helps people make bad decisions, et cetera. What gives, wonder drug?

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Shnikees. We’ve been hearing that HPV is bad news bears for a while. Not only does the Human Papillomavirus leave unsightly GENITAL WARTS but can cause some serious (re: deadly) health problems, like cervical cancer (or cancer of the lady business, as we call anything to do with the female reproductive zone). And then we heard that the people are getting throat cancer for genital warts and we were like 'whaaa? How is that even possible?' And then a high school health teacher explained it us and we were like, 'Whoa. How is that fair? Oral sex … Read More

While tomfoolery generally gets all the attention today, the first of April, there are other observances to be aware of this month. April serves as Sports Eye Safety Month, National Welding Month and, a least favorite for ranidaphobes like myself, National Frog Month.

Perhaps most importantly, with the CDC recently reporting that one in four teenage girls has at least one sexually transmitted disease (STD), April is the time of year for (STD) awareness. Out of the nearly 850 girls aged 14-19 who participated in the CDC's study, 18% tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV), … Read More

Gardasil is the newish vaccine for HPV (Human Papillomavirus/ Genital Warts). There was some semblance of a fracas last year about some regions requiring pubescent girls to get the shot because HPV can cause cervical cancer (and possibly throat cancer, it’s that kind of party). The concerns were twofold: 1) Some folks were a little uneasy about protecting kids against STDs when abstinence should suffice. 2) A few people in the medical community were a little uneasy with the long-term effects the vaccine.

But what about those little shavers out there? … Read More