We could eliminate cervical cancer, but then more people might screw!

[Eva_Luna]

@Kearse

The way the OP reads is that the vaccine would need to be given prior to the onset of sexual activity.

[snip]

I’m all for safe sex. but I’m also all for keeping “children” from screwing.

I was 34 when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Is that old enough to have sex in your book? I go for checkups religiously every year, and had never had an abnormal Pap until the one that caught the cancer. If a vaccine had been available, it might have never happened.

The reason to give it before the onset of sexual activity is that viruses are sneaky little bastards; everything I’ve read about HPV suggests it remains in the body indefinitely, dormant, until something lowers the person’s resistance, when it can reemerge and cause havoc. And yet I have tested negative for HPV at every one of a good half-dozen subsequent exams. The majority of women carrying one or more strains of HPV are asymptomatic, but they are still carriers, as are an even vast majority of HPV+ men.

And that is why a vaccine is a good idea.

[Tentacle_Monster]

All debate aside, will this vaccine keep warts from appearing on my donger?

[Wile_E]

@irishgirl

HPV is PRIMARILY sexually transmitted, it doesn’t mean it’s ONLY sexually transmitted.

DoctorJ- please correct me if I recall incorrectly, but wasn’t there a study of Australian women with HPV and only one prior sexual partner which showed that in some cases their sexual partner was not an HPV carrier? Thus suggesting that HPV can be contracted in other ways, possibly from non-sexual skin-to-skin contact etc.
…

Here’s the answer. Just tell them that it’s spread by toilet seats!

Then again, they’ll just start preaching that Jesus would want us to hover.

[trupa]

::sigh::

Catholic Christian checking in here, and a fairly conservative one, who still thinks that abstinence before marriage is a good idea, at that.

That being said, this is absolutely freaping ridiculous, not to say tragic, and to be condemned. (as is the whole condom thing in Africa, btw).

First and foremost, the objections of these so-called christians, as has been correctly pointed out above, can expose perfectly innocent, virgin-before-they-were-married women, who remain faithfull to their husbands, to an early and ugly death which would deprive their your children of their mother.

Now how pro-family is that?

The stridency, self-rightousness and quickness to condemn of evangelical protestant and yes, some Catholic Christians in the states, saddens and dismays me. I think they would have been the first to loosen up and look for good throwing rocks to chunk at the adulterous woman in the Gospel. Jesus forgave her, why can’t they?

I’m all in favour of explaining the benefits and religious justification of abstinence before marriage to teenagers, but it has to be done in the context of their faith, you have to work on stengthening their faith first and foremost. We all know scare tactics don’t work. Yes, they may slip, they may sin, we all do in our own ways. And guess what: if you regret it, if you confess, then its gone.forgiven. forever. period.

Peter, fercryingoutloud, publicly swore he had nothing to do with jesus three times. How bad is that? Might it be worse than going too far with your boyfriend one afternoon when the folks were both late coming home from work?

Disease, cancer, pregnancy does not go away after a hearfelt, contrite, sincere confession.

The culture of life must embrace all efforts to fight disease, particularly fatal ones, (so long as lives are not taken to do so)

Why is it that, while Christ was so quick to forgive, to love, to hang out with the prostitutes and sinners, that these people who call themselves christians are so quick to judge, to hate, to condemn.

It seems our society has more than it’s share of pharisees, splendid toombs all white & beautifull outiside, but full of putrefaction and decay inside.

[Kearse]

@Eva Luna

I was 34 when I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Is that old enough to have sex in your book? I go for checkups religiously every year, and had never had an abnormal Pap until the one that caught the cancer. If a vaccine had been available, it might have never happened.

The reason to give it before the onset of sexual activity is that viruses are sneaky little bastards; everything I’ve read about HPV suggests it remains in the body indefinitely, dormant, until something lowers the person’s resistance, when it can reemerge and cause havoc. And yet I have tested negative for HPV at every one of a good half-dozen subsequent exams. The majority of women carrying one or more strains of HPV are asymptomatic, but they are still carriers, as are an even vast majority of HPV+ men.

And that is why a vaccine is a good idea.

How are the two quotes you used reliant on each other?

Because I believe in the practice of safe sex does not automatically mean I condone children engaging in sexual activity…

[mojave66]

>The reason to give it before the onset of sexual activity is that viruses
>are sneaky little bastards; everything I’ve read about HPV suggests
>it remains in the body indefinitely, dormant, until something lowers
>the person’s resistance, when it can reemerge and cause havoc.

My boss (Barbara Mosicki MD), who is one of the leading experts in HPV, has a countertheory that the virus is elimated rather than dormant. Right now we’re testing subject samples on a variety of immunological processes to see if this is true or not.

WHICH, FTR, doesn’t mean a vaccine isn’t the best idea on the planet given how nasty cervical cancer is, or that you shouldn’t have regular pap smears if you are female-- sexually active or not, or that you should ignore any wart-like growths on your privates irregardless of gender.

BTW, genital warts in men can lead to penile cancer, but it is extremely rare.

[Eva_Luna]

@Kearse

How are the two quotes you used reliant on each other?

Because I believe in the practice of safe sex does not automatically mean I condone children engaging in sexual activity…

What quotes? I don’t see any quotes.

If the vaccine had existed when I was a child, I might well not have gotten the disease as an adult. I would like to see future children spared the joy of surgery and panic that I went through.

[Eva_Luna]

@mojave66

>My boss (Barbara Mosicki MD), who is one of the leading experts in HPV, has a countertheory that the virus is elimated rather than dormant. Right now we’re testing subject samples on a variety of immunological processes to see if this is true or not.

If her findings aren’t widely reported, plese post a link here. I’d love to hear about them. But they would contradict what I read in a New England Journal of Medicine article right after my surgery.

WHICH, FTR, doesn’t mean a vaccine isn’t the best idea on the planet given how nasty cervical cancer is, or that you shouldn’t have regular pap smears if you are female-- sexually active or not, or that you should ignore any wart-like growths on your privates irregardless of gender.

My understanding is that the HPV strains which cause cancer are NOT the same ones that cause warts.

[Little_Bird]

@mojave66

BTW, genital warts in men can lead to penile cancer, but it is extremely rare.

Maybe we should asplain this to the fundies. Seems to me they think a man sleeping around is a no-no (but will be tolerated) whereas a woman even considering enjoying sex is a burn-in-hell offence. Maybe when it’s their (or their sons’) sinfull bits being threatened they may take more notice, not just the evil bad woman’s hole of sin.