Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection – one that a majority of the population, regardless of gender, will acquire at some point in their lives.
Anyone who is sexually active can contract HPV, and the virus can be spread when an infected individual is completely asymptomatic. Symptoms can even arise years after infection, making diagnosis difficult, and figuring out when you first became infected almost impossible.
And once you are infected with HPV it, it is incurable. While the virus sometimes goes away on its own, certain strains of the virus cause health problems like genital warts, cancers, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Once infected, no medication, therapy, shot, or pill can rid a person of HPV.
The good news? There’s a vaccine – but doctors aren’t administering it nearly as much as you’d expect.
A study in Pediatrics found that among almost 600 pediatricians and family doctors, approximately one-third don’t strongly recommend the vaccine to parents of preteens, primarily because they want to avoid offending parents by recommending a vaccine that prevents an STI.
The HPV vaccine has always been controversial because it involves discussing the eventual sex life of preteen girls with parents who may not be ready to address such issues. In addition, some fear that providing protection against an STI will encourage promiscuity among young people. While this puts doctors in a tough situation, the vaccine is most effective if administered before an individual becomes sexually active.
While less than 2 percent of adolescents have had sex before their 12th birthday, almost one-third of 16-year-olds have had sex – making 11 or 12 years old the ideal time to receive the HPV vaccine.
Simply because it protects from an STI, the HPV vaccine got unfairly entangled in our country’s incredible fear of premarital promiscuity. Although most teens are sexually active, and therefore can potentially be exposed to HPV, some individuals seem more concerned with how protection from HPV could lead to increased promiscuity among teens. It is alarming that people are shying away from an actual anticancer shot because of our ideas about who should and should not be having sex.
Amidst this controversy, rumors regarding the vaccine’s safety have come into question. Although these claims are completely unfounded, they have evidently sparked anti-vaccine speculations and have made some parents even more skeptical of the vaccine.
The bottom line is that the HPV vaccine is a safe way to effectively prevent cancer and other health problems, but it will continue to be underutilized if the dangerous knowledge gaps between the medical community and individuals receiving it are not addressed. We have a life-saving vaccine at our fingertips – let's allow it to do its job.
