HPV

I am going to be PISSED if I get cervical cancer. I want to be ONE LESS, like all the commercials are telling me I could be. But I might be ONE MORE.

Apparently cancer, and especially cervical cancer, runs in the family, and I should have gotten the shot. However, my insurance doesn't cover it and it is incredibly expensive. (600+ dollars) (Actually, that's what my doctor told me a year ago, but I looked online a few minutes ago and now I see that it is just under 400 dollars. It's getting more affordable.)

It's just f#&@%ing right wing, conservative people like this guy

http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/03/this-is-not-necessarily-a.html

that drive me nuts!

My favorite phrase from this guy's blog is this

"I've heard from some teen students on the issue, and they say that too many of their female classmates believe having sex is cool. We used to have a name for girls like that in my teen days back in the '80s."

This is so typical. You've heard it, I've heard it, and for some reason it is infuriating me now when I used to just shake my head at it. When girls have sex, they are whores. Girls need to keep their legs glued together and it is THEIR FAULT when STDs get passed around and pregnancies happen. Even when the vast majority of girls are sleeping with boys who are older than they are. (Not in a statutory rape sort of way, just that the fact that a 17 year old boy should know more (based solely on the fact that he has been alive a year longer) than a 16 year old girl.)

And lots of places want to make this vaccine legal, but conservative people think that if girls get this vaccine it will encourage them to sleep around. One of the comments on the blog that I posted a link to above is this,

"I believe that perhaps the HPV vaccination should be made AVAILABLE to those who wish to have their daughter vaccinated but to have it be a REQUIREMENT is an insult to my parenting."

Ok, so this parent believes that, A not only is her parenting style the best, but B her daughter isn't sexually active. And maybe, right now, this daughter isn't. But, who's to say that once this girl moves out of the house, she isn't going to have sex once or even twice in college? Who's to say that she totally protected from rape? Who's to say that children aren't going to be sexually active against their parent's wishes? As long as people like this parent continue getting their voices heard in political arenas, this vaccine will stay a dirty word. If some people are right, (and they aren't) this is a shot that only future prostitutes and whores need. This is a shot that EVERY girl should get, regardless of how they, or their parents think they, plan on acting sexually.

I just don't see the problem with continuing to teach your children whatever you want to ("remain a virgin till you're married" to "everyone experiments" to anything in between) but have them get this vaccine just in case.

Do you?