I’ll bet they are. Isn’t it great that we live in a society where governmental approval of drugs and vaccines is objective and not based on the actions of special interest groups?
Oh, no, wait, that’s in Utopia, not here. :smack:
I don’t know if they contacted the authorities or not, the nurses didn’t mention it. And I didn’t think to ask at the time, I was just so shocked.
The girl is getting the warts treated, though the case is so severe she may be referred to a hospital GYN. She and her mother were given literature on genital warts and STD’s.
I had no idea of what genital warts looked like, so I went online to see.
I really wish I hadn’t.
Cite?
I once took care of a 14 year old who came to the ICU with a mystery illness. During a doctor visit (with mom in attendance) she said she was not sexually active. Later, her cousin told me that indeed she had been for “a couple years” and that her "boyfriend was much older.
I let the rest of the medical team know this and asked if we should test her for HIV. I got a resounding NO! I was told by an otherwise intellegient physian that she couldn’t possibly have AIDS or even be sexually active, since she was a straight A student. :dubious: :smack: She eventually died from an overwhelming fungal infection.
When should you take a girl to the doctor for her first OB/GYN exam? Ivygirl recently started menstruating, but she’s only 13, and thinks boys are cute but sex is gross.
I was thinking 16 or so.
My mom took me at 13, because I was having light bleeding that went on and on for months. I think this might have been earlier than necessary, otherwise - 15 or 16 might be a good age.
I don’t fault her for doing it, but the doctor she chose was horrible! He was a gruff old man, not at all sensitive to a young girl who’d never been through such a thing. I remember him telling my mom, when it was over, that if she ever brought me back to him, I’d have to be anesthetized. He said it in a tone that implied I was too much trouble for him to put up with otherwise. I cried a lot. What a horrible way to experience your first pelvic exam!
Please pick a nice, gentle doctor - maybe even a woman.
ivylass, I’d ask your daughter’s physician. Tell them how long she’s been mensturating, and ask if she should have her first exam or not. They will be glad you are asking, and will likely tell you when she should go in. I was considered “precocious” in that I started my cycle at eleven and a half. I believe I was about 13 when I had my first pap smear, and the doctor considered it overdue.
Seriously?
In the UK cervical smear tests are typically not done until around age 20 or so (3 years after sexual activity starts). Did your doctor just want you to get comfortable with being examined or did they really feel that they needed to check?
I thought the usual U.S. guidelines were either about when you’re 18 or when you become sexually active. Most of the time you can’t get hormonal contraception without an exam.
The gentlest exam I’ve ever gotten was from my current male GYN, who I have to go back to in a couple of months or so. I wouldn’t judge a doctor or nurse practitioner or whoever only by gender. But I’ve never had a really bad experience, though I hate it. I’d far rather get a pelvic exam than go to the dentist – on my unpleasant scale, dentistry is far worse.
I didn’t go until I was 25 and needed to get on the pill. The nurse practitioner sort of looked at me when I admitted that, but she was perfectly nice about it. Better late than never was her attitude. I’m good at procrastinating! Besides, I hadn’t had sex yet, so didn’t see a reason to go unless I had a problem.
I’ll clarify, sorry.
No, she did say she was going on the pill b/c she had been with her bf (he was older at 16) for four whole months and he wanted to have sex.
I’m guessing though that a young girl experiencing puberty would feel more comfortable with a woman.
Here’s one. And another. And another. You need any more? Here’s one from the horse’s mouth.
(Because, you know, it’s always best to wait to protect people from a potentially fatal disease until AFTER they are more likely to have been exposed to its cause. And I’m going to take a wild guess that a far greater proportion of American children will end up having sex at some point than being exposed to, say, whooping cough or polio.)
People like that aggravate the crap out of me with their misinformation. Cuurent etimates are that a single strain of HPV (16) is responsible for about 50% of all cases of cervical cancer, and that the 4 strains included in the vaccine currently in clinical trials cause about 80% of all cervical cancer.
The idea that the way for women to avoid HPV infection and therefore cervical cancer by simply remaining abstinent until marriage, and marrying someone uninfected, is completely stupid and unrealistic, especially if you have read any of the medical literature at all, because there is NO TEST that can accurately determine whether a man carries any of the 100+ strains of HPV (as an estimated 50 - 80% of the adult US population does, most of whom are completely unaware they are infected). One of the articles I read post-diagnosis mentioned a link to HPV was first discovered when a correlation was noted between widowed and remarried men whose first wives had died of cervical cancer, and whose new wives later contracted cervical cancer or associated precancerous conditions (cervical dysplasia), yet the men were totally asymptomatic.
For that matter, testing even on women can be unreliable, because current medical knowledge holds that viruses are sneaky fuckers that can remain dormant and hide in the body for years on end. Science holds that the damn beasts are still around somewhere, as with HIV that drops to undetectable levels after treatment - they are unlikely to be eliminated by a short, localized outpatient surgery in any case - and yet my past 3+ years of regular followup testing have indicated no virus at all.
Uninformed fundamentalist idiots piss me off, especially when their actions can kill people. If they want to subject their own minor children to the potential of serious illness and death to comply with their own skewed morality, fine (well, not fine, but marginally less stupid), but if I ever have a daughter, that vaccine will be a discussion with her pediatrician the second she hits menarche, if not earlier.
Eva Luna, cervical cancer survivor
I don’t have children, but what Eva Luna said. If you don’t want your children protected, sorry for them. Maybe when they’re out from under your controlling, evil influence they will take steps to protect themselves. Don’t, however, think that because you are “Christian” that you have the right to prevent other people from protecting themselves and their children.
Parents who have honest discussions with their children about sex and the pros and cons of it don’t have nearly as many “quick weddings” and “premature babies” as do parents who just “trust in the Lord” and “my child would never do that”. (Don’t ask for a cite, this is life experience)
I can understand (in a way) parents that don’t want their young daughter on birth control, etc., but something that is going to prevent her from cancer? What (or are) you thinking?
Not to mention, what happens if your daughter is raped?
Well, since even virgins can get yeast infections (nasty ones), and things like cysts and fibroids can happen too, I’d say the doctor wasn’t wrong to want to check on me. (Especially since I was having abnormal periods at a young age, very heavy with harsh cramping. A few years ago I was diagnosed with fibroids, and eventually had my utereus removed because of the placement of a fibroid. I’m now dealing with a fibroid on my right ovary, and “sputtering” hormonal levels.)
I was thinking more along the lines of mom hadn’t spoken to her daughter about sex in the past,. why start talking about it now.
Just speculation* but if the mother and daughter had a relationship where they could talk about such things, the warts wouldn’t have been huge. The daughter was attempting to cover up the fact she was having sex.
*Based on my own upbringing. Mom was uncomfortable about speaking about sex so it made me uncomfortable talking to her about it or anyting related to my male bits. My father however treated sex as a regular, natural thing people do. I could talk to him about anything.
Quite possibly. My mother has told me the worst exam she ever had was from a woman, though. I find the experience equally (emotionally) uncomfortable no matter what; nobody but my boyfriend is supposed to be down there!
It really saddens me that there are so many girls who are STILL completely ignorant of how their bodies work and how they can protect themselves. Talk about irresponsible parenting. It makes me sick. Besides, the more I knew about sex, the less likely I was to do it younger even given the chance, the possible consequences were too big for me to want to deal with!
What Eva Luna said. (Nice post, Eva!)
As a health professional, I am struggling mightily to continue to see folks like “Focus on the Family” as ignorant and misinformed. Because frankly I am beginning to see them as the Enemy after reading malignant nonsense like their position paper. And I do really hate to demonize those with whom I have diagreements. But that is becoming my visceral response to them.
I look forward to reading your response.
Sorry, please substitute “Family Research Council” for “Focus on the Family” above. FOF’s position in their paper is not unreasonable.
That doesn’t mean I agree with it, but I can respect it.