Saturday, May 31, 2008

HPV isn't a girl virus!

I know I'm not the only one who thinks it's strange that Gardasil is being marketed to women and girls. While HPV certainly has worse effects in females, it can cause genital warts in males, and more importantly: women are getting it from somewhere. If you want to vaccinate thoroughly enough to get the virus out of the community, inoculating only 50% of the community is a terrible way to do that.

This may just be a transitional drug-approval-process thing; the official website says it's approved for women 9 to 26 simply because they were the initial study group. So I don't want to scream "sexism"--considering the consequences of HPV are potentially fatal in women but not men, this is a rational choice. Hopefully the step of vaccinating men so they can't infect women (or get genital warts) will come with time.

I should really get Gardasil. I feel sort of resigned though, because the rationale on 26 is that women over 26 are more likely to have had multiple partners, and... yeah. I've been good with condoms, and I've never had any bumpies or oozies, but nonetheless I feel like I probably have something asymptomatic, just because that's how God punishes sluts, I guess. (When I was a teenager, incidentally, I was constantly convinced I was pregnant. I read somewhere you could get your period while pregnant and that really got me going. At one point I could swear I felt the baby kicking. Especially after I ate a lot of beans.) I mean, I can't expect to have this much fun for free, right?

Yes I can. Sex doesn't have a price or a punishment or "consequences"--it has manageable risks. I'm going to make an appointment on Monday.

3 comments:

  1. I think you've got a very healthy attitude towards sex, and you're making a good choice by making that appointment. :)

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  2. You may not be aware that Gardasil is going through clinicals now to validate it for use in males to prevent anal and throat cancers. I belive those are supposed to be complete sometime next year.

    It'll be interesting to see how the right wingers react to havign it prescribed for men.

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  3. I'm way over the age line, but I've not had many partners.. I've actually considered getting the shots myself.... But then I don't have $400 laying around right now so it sure aa fuck ain't happening. :-/

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