Boys and young men should consider being vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to protect themselves from a range of illnesses, a conference has heard.
UK girls receive an HPV vaccination to protect them from cervical cancer.
But the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) wants school sex education to raise awareness that HPV can cause cancers in both sexes.
Boys need information to decide whether to get the jab, the conference heard.
The ATL annual conference, meeting in Liverpool, overwhelmingly backed a motion raising concerns that HPV infection is too often only discussed in the light of the risks of cervical cancer.
“It wasn’t until students at my school started questioning why only the girls were being vaccinated that I first started investigating the consequences of this disease.
“What I found was alarming,” said Sree Varshini Rajkumar, who proposed the motion.