Heaving a Dead Cat – Condoms, Chances, and Choices

The Washington Dispatch ^ | Feb 22, 2003 | Beverly B. Nuckols, M.D.

[Remedy]

Exclusive commentary by Beverly B. Nuckols, M.D.

Most of us have read the novel, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and smiled or laughed when Huck Finn talked Tom Sawyer, who complained of catching warts from playing with toads, into going to the graveyard at midnight to "heave" a dead cat while repeating a ritual phrase as a charm. You and I know that Tom could throw that dead cat from midnight to sunrise without achieving his goal, because we understand that warts are a disease caused by a virus that is passed from person to person. But, I’m sure the ritual made both boys feel better, at least until faced with a threat to their own lives that was directly related to their being in that graveyard. And it made them a little more comfortable about playing with toads.

In the same newsletters, web pages, and mainstream media pages that regularly push condom use rather than abstinence and monogamy, and which frequently condemn President Bush and his judicial nominees as "anti-choice," I’ve seen similar magical thinking. Just this month, the new "Male Latex Condom Use Fact Sheet" from the Center for Disease Control is under attack as biased against scientific "core values" and as ideological because it explicitly states that "The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected."

I can’t imagine why reading the truth in a government publication bothers these people so much that they call the truth a lie. Urging condoms on people who wish to have sex with multiple partners is magical thinking. It’s worse than when Huck talked Tom into leaving his safe home to go play with a dead cat in the graveyard at midnight, because these are the organizations and professionals who should understand the disease process well enough to know better.

Condom use has only been shown to have a significant effect in preventing the transmission of STD’s when used consistently and correctly 100% of the time and then only against a few STD’s like gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV that are spread by the discharge of bodily fluids. Those same studies show how rare it is, even among monogamous couples where one partner is infected with HIV and where consistency known to be an immediate matter of life and death, for couples to actually use condoms 100% of the time. (Their consistent and proper use of contraceptives is directly related to the fact that the couples are in long-term monogamous relationships, by the way.) Unfortunately, condom use will not protect anyone from catching the highly contagious Human Papilloma Virus ("HPV" often called genital warts) or Herpes Simplex Virus (called "HSV" or genital herpes). The lack of protection from HPV is especially important to me as a doctor, since HPV causes cancer of the cervix, the opening to the womb, in women and is the reason for those yearly Papanicolaou tests or "Pap smears." Not every woman who is infected will develop cancer, but 99.7% of women who have cervical cancer are infected with HPV. On the other hand, women can be 99.5% certain they don’t have cervical disease if they test negative for HPV. And (unlike most "STD’s") other than catching the virus from their mothers at birth, the only way to become infected with HPV is by having sex with someone who is infected.

Different strains of HPV seem to favor different parts of the body, and cause different types of lesions or changes in the tissues they infect. Some strains of the virus are responsible for common warts like Tom Sawyer’s, and other types give rise genital warts that range from small round bumps to mushroom-like lesions that grow on the genital areas of both men and women. These warts can be embarrassing and some can grow large enough to interfere with normal bodily functions, but they aren’t considered life-threatening. Still other strains of the virus cause almost invisible changes in the vagina and on the penis that can cause cancer. The strains that prefer the genital area may grow on areas that are not covered by a condom and may be invisible to the eye, so even the most consistent and proper use of condoms will not prevent the spread of the disease. Genital HPV is the most common STD in the United States, with 20% of women testing positive at any given time. It is estimated that 75% of all sexually active women are infected at least once in their lives. Men are not commonly tested for HPV (men do not get Pap smears each year), but it’s assumed that the prevalence and incidence of the disease is the same in men and women.

Speaking of those yearly Pap smears, doctors probably should inform women that the reason they need this test is because it allows us to find early, pre-cancerous changes in the cells of the cervix which we know are caused by HPV while treatment is possible - with freezing, lasers and surgery – so that no woman should ever die in the U.S. of cervical cancer. The guidelines for routine screening tests from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Practitioners make it very clear that women who have not had sex do not need pap smears at all, and that women in monogamous relationships who have never had an abnormal exam do not need Pap smears every year. The women in this last group can almost all go two to three years between Paps. (We do want to catch the 0. 03% of cervical changes that are not due to HPV infection.)

Cervical cancer and its precursors are probably caused by a mix of conditions. Most of the known risk factors can be controlled to some extent by the choices of the woman or girl and her partner(s). Women with HPV greatly increase their risk of cell changes that lead to cervical cancer if they smoke, especially if they are also infected with Herpes Simplex Virus. The longer she waits to have sex, the less risk she has of both infection and cancer, since the cervical membranes of a young girl are biologically more susceptible to both infection and the cellular DNA changes that give rise to cancer. While it is possible for a woman to catch the virus with her first partner and her risk increases with multiple partners, the strongest risk for infection is actually the number of different partners her partner has had.

The result of the prevailing bias among a few powerful political groups who favor the teaching of condom use instead of monogamy is that young women and men are not made aware of the truth that condoms are not very reliable at preventing STD’s, that every single case of cervical cancer and even most pap smears could be avoided, and that monogamy really is the best defense. But, the biggest deception is that our girls and boys are not taught that not only is it possible to abstain until they are in a monogamous, lasting relationship – like marriage to someone they can trust with their very life, it is preferable. The choice is to take a chance on a moment or wait for one true love for life.

(If you want to read the other side of the story, look up "Condom Fact sheet" on your favorite search engine, or take a look at the websites of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood, the Association of Reproductive Health Practitioners, or the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.)

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Beverly B. Nuckols, MD is a Family Practice doctor from New Braunfels, Texas. She is a member of the President’s National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women and serves on the Boards of Texas Physicians Resource Council and Physicians Life Alliance, which sponsors Medical Students for Life. She can be reached at hocndoc@flash.net.

[Remedy]

Current columns in the Dispatch.

• Common Sense by Oliver North,
• Commentary by L. Brent Bozell III,
• Commentary by Michelle Malkin

[Remedy]

Do you anticipate syndication this spring? J

[Remedy]

>>>>The result of the prevailing bias among a few powerful political groups who favor the teaching of condom use instead of monogamy is that young women and men are not made aware of the truth that condoms are not very reliable at preventing STD’s,<<<<

Sex in the City and Elsewhere: A Look at the Social Issues in the 21st Century

Dr. Meg Meeker Addresses Sexuality and STDs

Appearing on the same panel was Dr. Meg Meeker, author of Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids, published by Regnery, a Human Events sister firm. Dr. Meeker said Americans are allowing the entertainment industry and major corporations to sell sex to children in order to make money and that the result has been an alarming increase in sexually transmitted diseases. She noted that according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 15 million Americans get a new STD each year, and two-thirds of those are under the age of 25.

Dr. Meeker said that, according to the CDC, there were two common STDs in the late 1970s and "after 20 years of teaching our kids how to use condoms we have 30 STDs among our children age 12-18." In light of a recent report from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that concluded that there was not enough evidence that male latex condoms were effective at reducing the risk of most STDs other than HIV/AIDS, Dr. Meeker said, "I personally consider it malpractice to hand one of my patients a condom and tell them it works when the NIH doesn’t say so."

Concluded Dr. Meeker, "It is time we take sexual freedom off its pedestal and raise up sexual health."

[hocndoc]

Thank you so much for your work posting this, Remedy.
And for your encouragement!

[hocndoc]

Ping (and not a decent modest blush, at all)

[jwalsh07]

Nice scribe Doc. Keep on keepin on.

[MHGinTN]

Well done, Lady. One note: during my tenure as a pharmaceutical rep., I called on oncologists. One who was working with the CDC noted to me that HIV has been proven to pass from female to male (a hushed up military study found this) via the hair follicles of the pubic region. Condoms are not much 'prevention' in retrospect, but the CDC knew that decades ago, yet publicized the 'effectiveness' in lieu of dealing with a growing epidemic via tried and proven methodology ... they succumb to PC, to not deal directly with the homosexual community when the disease was primarily a homosexually transmitted malady.

[hocndoc]

Thank you both.
Spread the word!
I get a little female chauvinistic when I think of all the Pap smears, colposcopies, and freezing, lasers, and cauterization done to women because of HPV. When I read and hear that condoms are "effective" at preventing STD's, it seems that either the author is fraudulent, ignorant, or only concerned about men's health.
Women are harmed every day by this misinformation.
(Again, for the millionth time, I ask,"Where are the self-proclaimed "feminists"?")

[Remedy]

hocndoc heading for syndication

[Remedy]

ping

[Remedy]

Should be required reading for teenagers. The title and lead in are attention grabbing, even for those teens not inclined to reading.

[Coleus]

In New Jersey they start Family Life classes in the 1st grade, by the 5th grade they begin with sex education where they show "drawings" portraying the differences between male and female, then by the 7th grade barrier-methods i.e. condoms, of birth control are introduced, teaching abstinence, as Assemblywoman Crecco wanted in one of her sponsored bills, is NOT mandatory. By the time they get to High School, (where many contain Sexual Health Clinics provided by our Government from State and Federal Title 1 funding) the term "condom use" will be, inculcated or rammed down their throats, which is a very careless and life-threatening supposition on their part. This is a good article for parents to show their children the other side of the coin where the antithesis of what they teach in school is true. It's a matter of life and death especially for Women.

The Boy Scouts of America recently sponsored units to attend the World Scouting Jamboree in Thailand. Since scouting in other parts of the world are co-ed and females were in attendance, the boys were met with organizers handing out condoms to the Scouts. I wonder how many youths became infected?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/812856/posts
http://www.bangkokpost.com/030103_News/03Jan2003_news15.html
http://www.worldscoutjamboree20.org/pdf/English/010.pdf

http://www.worldscoutjamboree20.org/pdf/English/011.pdf

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw10407967211B232&set_id=1

http://www.worldscoutjamboree20.org/releasescollect.asp

http://www.geocities.com/thehugmonster/midis/beprepared.mid

http://www.worldscoutjamboree20.org/releasescollect.asp

Oh, there also was a very large presence of the UN (UNESCO & UNICEF) brainwashing the kids to promote their communist agenda at this Jamboree.

[Salvation]

**Choice is the # 1 killer in the US.**

BTTT!

[cpforlife.org]

CHEERS AND APPLAUSE TO HOCNDOC!!

”hocndoc heading for syndication” And deservedly so! When a physician puts to paper the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth-- their message should be disseminated with utmost vigor! We are fighting an uphill battle on these matters, and documents such as this will be the invaluable tools used to battle the left.

Hocndoc, have you considered writing on the abortion-breast cancer link(s)? The facts are slowly gaining traction, someone in your position could help greatly.

I also want to say that it was great reading from a non-scientist’s perspective. These technical articles can be tough to get through, and your writing style is a refreshing change from what I’ve become accustomed to. (The title is GREAT!)

Keep writing, you have a wonderful gift that can help spread the truth. America needs all you can deliver.

[hocndoc]

Y'all have made my day. I'm humbled by your compliments.
Please pass the news on.

[Question_Assumptions]

This is why I have no desire to send any children my wife and I may have to NJ public schools and I'm happy that friends ultimately decided to keep their daughter in private religious schools through high school.

[Coleus]

That's a good move.

Sexual abstinence speakers canceled (by NJ Teacher Union)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/771235/posts

Teachers union apologizes for error on Web site
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833871/posts

NJ High School Library Creates Homosexual Section
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/664348/posts

PC in NJ
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/623225/posts

NJ, No Founding Fathers? That's our new history Curriculum
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/618766/posts

Child Protection Project
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/739255/posts

Teacher Molests Student, No Jail Time
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/688371/posts

Black history now required reading in N.J. schools
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/741563/posts