I agree that it’s sad to have sex changed so much in the last 30 years. (Remember when the biggest fear was pregnancy and hellfire?)
Still, the double standard is alive and well - if not stronger and even more insidious than it was before girls who became pregnant could legally be told to “just take care of it.”
However, I still give shots and pills for STD’s, and will appreciate having one more tool to prevent them. I’m especially happy about all the repeat paps and treatments that will *not* be necessary. Can you imagine? I’m looking forward to the day that all boys and girls are vaccinated and these strains are virtually wiped out.
The lung problems for babies and children born to mothers with HPV are life-threatening. I’m not sure exactly how the virus is transmitted in people with lung cancer, but we’re only just now finding out that as most lung cancers (including those in non-smokers) may be due to the HPV strains that the vaccine guards against.
“The Association of Human Papillomavirus 16/18 Infection with Lung Cancer among Nonsmoking Taiwanese Women”
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/61/7/2799
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/15/4705
http://jcp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/extract/60/4/337
I don’t believe that having one less risk will make people less careful than they would have been.
One problem I always run into is that there’s no real way to test men and no way to treat male infections HPV 16 and 18 (which don’t cause visible warts, but are the cause of 70% to 99% of cervical cancer).
Thank you for an interesting post. For the record, I am not opposed to the vaccine, if it is safe and effective. I’m not a proponent of making it mandatory at this point.
My real point (maybe made badly) is that I dislike the fact that kids are fed *information* which is often slanted or incomplete, so they are making life decisions without good facts to back them up. Really honestly, many of my students believed that condoms were 100% effective against EVERYTHING you could get from sexual contact, oral sex was 100% safe and that the pill could protect them from STDs. Now, that’s scary. I am a proponent of abstinence, especially in younger teens, real sex ed that involves parents (my dream would be good classes parents attended WITH their kids but of course, some parents simply would not do it and some parents don’t care if their kids are having sex/babies/etc) and a society which stops promoting sex as just another fun thing everyone is doing all the time.
I’m not a prude (well, maybe I am) but sex is such an important part of human relationships, and it’s being treated as nothing more than a bodily function no more important than going to the bathroom or scratching.
BTW I didn’t know the lung cancer connection. And, do dogs get some for of HPV (obviously without the H!)? Could it account for apparent increased cancer rates in dogs?
susie
No, I can't imagine. This is one of the points people bring up; the false sense of security that the vaccine will give.
PAPs will always be needed because not everyone will be immune from the vaccine and the vaccine does not protect against every strain.
If a medical doctor thinks this way, the general populace certainly will. Women who stop getting PAP tests are putting themselves at greater risk.