Men’s Health Network (MHN) recently submitted a formal public comment to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) ahead of its June 25–27, 2025 meeting. The purpose? To advocate for stronger, gender-specific HPV vaccination recommendations and improved outreach strategies that directly target boys and young men. MHN’s comment emphasized a persistent disparity: although HPV vaccination is recommended for both sexes, adolescent males continue to lag behind females in vaccine uptake. This gap persists even as HPV-related cancers among men, particularly oropharyngeal (throat), anal, and penile cancers, continue to rise at alarming rates.
MHN’s recommendations were clear: increase funding for male-focused public education campaigns, improve healthcare provider communication to ensure consistent messaging to male patients and their caregivers, and prioritize vaccination for high-risk populations, including men who have sex with men (MSM) and underserved racial and ethnic groups. This call for action aligns with MHN’s broader mission of reducing preventable disease burdens through awareness, education, and advocacy, especially in areas where men’s health has historically been overlooked.
That’s why an upcoming global event from Global Action on Men’s Health (GAMH) and NOMAN is an Island: Race to End HPV is timely and important. The event doesn’t just echo the urgency outlined in MHN’s ACIP comment, it humanizes it.
Webinar Announcement: “Living with a Cancer Caused by HPV – The Experience of Men”
Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM EDT | 3:00 PM BST | 16:00 CEST | 19:30 IST | 00:00 AEST (July 9)
Duration: 60 minutes
Register here
This is the second in a six-part international webinar series focusing on Men, Cancer, and HPV. While much of the conversation around HPV focuses on science and policy, which are undeniably critical, this webinar takes a different approach: it centers the real-world stories of men whose lives have been impacted by an HPV-related cancer diagnosis.
Featured speakers include:
- Patrick Howard, who will speak candidly about his experience with penile cancer, a condition often surrounded by silence and shame.
- Jason Mendelsohn, a well-known HPV oropharyngeal cancer survivor and advocate, who will share his journey through throat cancer, including the symptoms he ignored, the treatment path he followed, and the life he now leads post-recovery.
Why This Matters
Each year, at least 180,000 men around the world are diagnosed with cancers caused by HPV. Despite these staggering numbers, public discourse, vaccination campaigns, and educational materials overwhelmingly focus on women, particularly cervical cancer. This imbalance creates a dangerous blind spot in both prevention and early detection for men.
The result? Men often don’t know they’re at risk. They don’t recognize early warning signs. And even when they do, cultural stigmas and discomfort around seeking help frequently delay diagnosis and worsen outcomes. In some cases, men aren’t even informed by healthcare providers that the HPV vaccine applies to them.
The stories being shared during this webinar cut through the noise and statistics to show what this issue really looks like, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. They also serve to validate and normalize the experiences of male cancer patients who may feel isolated or ignored within broader cancer care and prevention narratives.
Aligning Personal Stories with Public Policy
MHN’s ACIP comment laid out the need for more strategic interventions to close the gender gap in HPV vaccination. Events like this webinar support that mission by reinforcing the human impact of systemic gaps. When real men speak out about real consequences, it reinforces the need for targeted solutions, not one-size-fits-all messaging.
Public health systems must be responsive to differences in behavior, communication preferences, cultural norms, and risk factors. Boys, adolescent males, MSM communities, and men of color experience different barriers to HPV education and vaccine access. Recognizing this doesn’t divide resources, it redirects them more effectively.
These lived experiences do more than raise awareness; they build empathy. That empathy is often the missing ingredient in public health policy and prevention efforts. If we want boys and men to engage with vaccination campaigns, they need to see people who look like them, sound like them, and share their fears and experiences.
What You’ll Learn From This Webinar
- The physical and emotional toll of HPV-related cancers in men
- How silence and stigma delay diagnosis and worsen health outcomes
- The importance of gender-neutral vaccination messaging that includes boys and men explicitly
- Gaps in public education and healthcare provider communication
- Why survivor stories are essential tools in driving change, education, and advocacy
These takeaways are not only useful for clinicians and public health professionals, but also for educators, parents, policymakers, and men themselves, especially those who don’t realize they may be at risk.
Building a Better Framework for Prevention
Men’s Health Network continues to emphasize that HPV prevention cannot be effective if it ignores half the population. The persistence of gendered assumptions in public health messaging, combined with discomfort around discussing sexually transmitted infections in males, has created a knowledge vacuum that puts boys and men at greater risk.
Webinars like this are crucial not just for the personal stories they highlight, but for the public conversations they ignite. They help us rethink how we talk about HPV, who we include in that conversation, and what policies must evolve to meet the reality men face.
Can’t Attend Live?
Those who register will receive a recording of the session. MHN encourages stakeholders in government, health education, community health, and patient advocacy to make use of this resource. These stories can, and should, be used to inform future awareness campaigns, vaccine outreach programs, and clinical communication strategies.
Conclusion
The gap in HPV vaccine uptake among adolescent males isn’t just a data point. It’s a public health failure that continues to grow more serious with every missed opportunity for prevention. MHN’s recent ACIP comment represents a push for structural change. The upcoming Men, Cancer, and HPV webinar illustrates why that push is necessary.
Together, these efforts bring voice to men who too often go unheard, and remind us that a virus doesn’t discriminate, but public health sometimes does. It’s time to correct that.
👉 Register here for the July 8 webinar
👉 Learn more about MHN’s HPV work
