Gay cancer price too expensive

Gay cancer price too expensive

Gay men aren’t paying for vaccines to prevent HPV-related anal cancer because the $450 price tag is too high, according to a survey by a Melbourne sexual clinic.

Despite the high cancer risk to gay men, the Federal Government’s vaccine roll-out pays for it to be administered only to young women. It also paid for an extensive national advertising campaign to let women know of the HPV-related cervical cancer risk.

The survey found almost 70 percent of gay men getting check-ups were unaware of the anal cancer risks, but were strongly in favour of the vaccine once informed.

The risk of anal cancer from HPV is 20 times greater for gay men than for other groups, cancer specialist Andrew Grulich from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research said.

If the HPV vaccine is targeted to [gay men], the challenge will be for them to be vaccinated before they acquire the HPV infection, given the time delay from sexual debut to disclosing sexual activity to a health professional, the report by Matiu Bush from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre stated.
However, the survey found young gay men would often not be prepared to discuss their need for the vaccine with their doctor until after it was too late.

The youngest age most gay men would be willing to approach a doctor and disclose their sexual activity to obtain the vaccine would be around 20 years old.

According to those researchers, coming forward at that age would be too late for a good number of those at risk because most gay men become sexually active at 18 and have had 15 sexual partners over those two years.

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