Bridge Over A Troubled Cervix

You know what I hate? Getting cancer. It’s really low on my list of things to do in my life. Because of that, on Tuesday, I will go to get my last HPV vaccine. This shot has been a great point of contention among political parties, schools, and parents. Being 27, I was fortunate to squeeze in under the age cutoff and have not had to deal with the social ramifications of being told that getting it will increase my promiscuity. In fact, waiting to get through the six-month series of three shots has actually reduced my promiscuity. Eighty percent of sexually –active adults have HPV, meaning that I was extraordinarily fortunate to get to my mid-twenties and still be STD free- especially since HPV can be transferred by contact alone (read “penetration not necessary”).

HPV, or the Human Papillomavirus infect your mucous membranes. While it expresses itself as warts, many strains of the virus have no showing signs at all. This is particularly scary when a few strains (about 13 of the hundreds) of this virus have been linked to cervical and anal cancer. Knowing as little as we do about other carcinogens, it is amazing to me that with such direct correlations more people aren’t jumping up and down over a vaccination that can prevent a type of cancer.

The HPV shot has been proposed, and in some places is mandatory, to be given to 12-year-old girls before they enter middle school. (Let us note here that 12-year-old-boys are not being given the shot. Men are merely carriers for HPV and until they start getting testicular cancer from HPV it is unlikely that this virus will be eradicated through vaccination.) Opponents to the shot say that telling girls that they are now free from a disease that carries with it a potential for cancer will make them want to go out and hump the first thing in sight. In actuality, these girls will only have one less risk to think about when it comes to sex.

Sex is never risk free. Conservatives seem to think that the only risk involved in sex is physical. We put our bodies, our trust, our emotions, and our health on the table (or the bed, or washing machine, or lawn chair, or public bathroom floor, or…) when we get it on. We take those risks because sex is worth it, for whatever reason. If it weren’t worth it, the sex toy industry would be making as much money as Google and we would all develop carpal tunnel syndrome by the age of 30.

Every few years, there is a new push in society to reestablish our puritanical roots. It happened when condoms started being available in schools (oh Donna Martin, you taught me so much about what it is like to live in Beverly Hills), it happened when sexual education was introduced as part of a mandatory curriculum (thank you Lifetime Movie Network for replaying “Fifteen and Pregnant” with Kirsten Dunst over and over), and it will happen when we find an AIDS vaccination. Parents (and non-parents alike) lash out with “these kids can’t handle the responsibility given to them”. But if that were true, would you not want to give your children as much armor to fight what comes at them?

I got to choose. I got to say, “this is my body and I want to protect it from as much pain and suffering as I can.” And because I choose to take the risk when it comes to having sex, I want to take as many precautions as I can. When they make a vaccine for morning after regret I will be in line for that too.