Comments on Gardasil Side Effects: Farrah Fawcett's Cancer, HPV and Gardasil

WELL said, Kristin. It needs to be said!

2010-02-08T10:12:04.358-05:00

WELL said, Kristin. It needs to be said!

I appreciate your comments--well put--but had to l...

2009-07-08T06:51:41.369-04:00

I appreciate your comments--well put--but had to laugh at being thought moralistic. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, pre-AIDs, post-Pill. "Nuff said.

Indeed, just one sexual encounter can give you HPV (or AIDS, or warts, or crabs, or any other unpleasant little number). What the CDC said is absolutely correct, but it is also, in my opinion, aimed at lessening the guilt/blame/fallout for women if they get HPV/cervical cancer.

There is a huge increase in the chance of getting a PERSISTENT HPV infection if you are exposed to multiple types of HPV from multiple partners. As we both know, it's the persistent infections (that don't clear themselves like 95% of HPV infections) that cause the problems. I am traveling at the moment, but when I return I will be happy to find you a study that showed this increase quite indisputably. It is particularly true of anal cancer, I believe, although I could be wrong on that.

My generation in particular, and perhaps my daughter's generation too, tend to think that if people talk about sleeping around leading to disease they are being moralistic. Actually, I remember thinking that when my mother said it to me--but she was right, dammit. This isn't about morals, it's about biological fact.

I think it is a huge disservice to people not to tell them the facts rather than the facts as they wish they were. I would love to believe that sleeping with multiple sex partners was merely a matter of morality. (Sex is fun, after all.) But that would be a lie.

If we're grown up enough to have sex, we should also be grown up enough to face biological facts and learn how to deal with them.

Overall, I was impressed with the informmation pro...

2009-07-01T00:11:30.703-04:00

Overall, I was impressed with the informmation provided in this blog, as I was curious if the discussion of Farrah Fawcett's untimely and tragic demise was linked to HPV. However, when I read the next section, I was appalled: "Smoking, sleeping around, and weakening the immune system through poor diet all increase the chances of an infection becoming persistent (smoking alone can increase the chances by up to 26 times), and in the case of anal cancer, having anal sex is certainly a risk factor. Some patients, however, have no risk factors."

Indeed, sexual activity of ANY kind puts individuals at risk for HPV particularly women. I believe that this public forum on Gardasil has taken a particularly moralistic tone in saying "sleeping around...all increase the chances of an infection becoming persistent." Why not echo the dictum of the CDC, which, according to their website says that "..., even people with only one lifetime sex partner can get HPV, if their partner was infected with HPV."

It is not splitting hairs but rather maintaining that the public health discussion of HPV is about human behavior not moralizing whether someone "sleeps around." HPV is a particularly insidious opportunist: one simple sexual encounter (whether protected with barrier methods like female/male condoms or dental dams) may mean a future battle for one's life. HPV does not need but one chance to unleash its havoc in someone's life. Please consider editing that type of language from your otherwise authoritative site.

Regards,

A future MPH student

After seeing Farrah Fawcett's documentary I am con...

2009-05-30T23:36:30.449-04:00

After seeing Farrah Fawcett's documentary I am convinced that she is an extremely genuine person; it was wonderful of her to step outside of herself to make this documentary