IIRC in america women can get it free through insurance, but men have to pay out of pocket if they want it, and it's expensive.

Hasn't been my experience. My son got it as a matter of routine and my private (employer) insurance paid it.

I have never heard of this. If you have more information this would be a potential lawsuit. However, vaccination is known to be ineffective over the age of 25 for preventing the most commonly associated HPVs with cancer (subtypes 16, 18, etc) because of the high likelihood it has already embedded into the body by an older age, and a vaccine does not retroactively remove that HPV.

It was definitely a thing, much harder to get insurance to pay for it for guys. Maybe it changed in the US, but it looks like Canada for example still discriminates based on gender: https://immunizebc.ca/hpv

In the US, years ago, it was possible to get if you were a guy between 18-25 but you really had to demand it and confirm/claim a low number of sexual partners. Not sure if that's still the case, hopefully not.

They definitely cut the prevalence of the subtypes they vaccinate for. the previously high-hitters for cancer (16, 18) are effectively reduced by a rate of something like 80% from vaccination. However other subtypes that the vaccine doesnt block could be behind the ongoing rise in cancer along with the unvaccinated.

That said -- I have yet to see statistics that show that the spread of HPV is down overall particularly for subtypes associated with cancer. That would be wonderful to see, but google/the CDC does not readily show such data to me, I'd have to keep digging

Now we do know that something like 91% of anal cancer (not colorectal) and 70% of throat cancer is HPV related according to the CDC. And unfortunately both throat cancer and anal cancer are in fact on the rise for all age groups and there is a hidden epidemic where young people are now getting it.

This to me would imply the possibility that the HPV vaccination is not effective currently -- either due to a lack of vaccination across previous generations or because of cancerous subtypes not covered by any vaccine.

https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/oralcav.html https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/anus.html

Prostate cancer is also seeking an uptick in young people https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html