Merck had originally hoped to get the vaccine approved for use in boys. But although women have routinely allowed swabs to be taken of their vaginal cells, the company found that men rebelled against the use of emery boards to collect cells from their penises. Researchers eventually discovered that jeweler’s-grade emery paper effectively removed cells without alarming men and were able to complete their studies.

It’s the paragraph I linked to in this post, but it is a “registration required” article now. (If you’re looking for it without using the link, it was “U.S. Approves Use of Vaccine for Cervical Cancer,” by Gardiner Harris, June 9, 2006. I haven’t researched it any further, so I don’t know how reliable might be those tests that Merck wanted to try. Anybody know anything about them?

Just FYI though, there is no male equivalent to the female test for HPV , because the female test is dependant on the changes at a cellular level in the cervix. Subclinical HPV (where symptoms – such as warts – do not manifest) in men is not detectable using current methods.

Love your work, I added your feed. Thanks.