Digital Father Podcast

I’m supposed to tell my daughter WHAT?

There has been a tremendous discovery in the world of medicine. According to the Centers for Disease Control:

In June 2006, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to recommend the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by certain types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine, Gardasil®, protects against four HPV types, which together cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently licensed this vaccine for use in girls/women, ages 9-26 years. The vaccine is given through a series of three shots over a six-month period.

Now I’m ready for any vaccine that has the potential to prevent even one form of cancer. This one may prevent 4 forms of HPV, which causes 70% of cervical cancers. Unfortunately, some folks are against it. Check out this lady (who hails from NY, which embarrasses me to no end…) who was quoted in The New Scientist:

…[R]eligious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favor vaccinating their daughters. “Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV,” says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group that has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV. “Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex,” Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.

So we’re back to this “head in the sand” attitude. We’re back to the idea that “if we talk about sex with them, they’ll think we approve of it.” The CDC calls it “disihibition”, defined as “continuing or returning to high-risk behaviors when one feels protected” and that is a fear with many activities. If you give someone a bullet-proof vest, they may be better protected, but a proper counselor works to convince them it is not guaranteed to stop all bullets. That’s what parenting is about.

I had heard about the vaccine in the news, but we haven’t yet spoken to our doctor about it. We did visit with a friend last night, who mentioned it, stating that many gynecologists are recommending that you talk to your daughter about why they need this vaccine. There has been discussion on the internet about it as well,as seen here at Fox and cancer.com. While I appreciate that I should discuss my daughter’s medical treatments with her, at age 9 I did not explain the mechanisms by which she could get mumps, measles, or rubella. However, she got the shot because it would prevent some pretty ugly diseases. That will be the extent of our discussion of HPV. We won’t even discuss what body systems it wold affect. Why would I? She’s 9, for heavens sake!

Finally, David Catania of the Washington D.C. City Council has proposed that girls in D.C. younger than 13 be required to have the vaccine, or have a parent waiver signed. Some have objected for the above reasons, others because it may be seen as a way to imply that young black girls (the majority of the D.C. public school population being black) are more likely to be sexually active. However, cervical cancer in black women is on the rise. The goal behind the law is not to prevent girls from going to school, or even to require the vaccine. It is meant to open discussion, and may even be able to tap into funding for girls and women who can’t afford the $360 it costs for the vaccine. I’m especially impressed with the response of Perneesa Steele, founder of the Richmond, VA-based Balm in Gilead, which is sponsoring “Spread the Word, Save a Sister”, whose goal is encouraging women of color to be tested and vaccinated. She says “I’d hate for us, 50 years from now,to be asking the question ‘Why did all the white kids get the vaccineand the black ones didn’t?’”

I’d like to encourage all of you to be talking to the young women in your family about this vaccine. If we do, I think we could all, 50 years from now, be saying “that was the turning point in the fight against cervical cancer.”

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