Truly sad news.

[theweaselking]

Oral sex causes cancer.

(The actual article goes into how they think it's HPV causing this, and so, since there's a vaccine, this problem should be totally curable.)

Comments

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*hoping that the vaccine has a wider age range of effectiveness on men than on women, but doubting it*

[thette.livejournal.com]

Oh, the vaccine probably is effective until you're infected, but the clinical studies are not yet done on all age groups (or on men).

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Ah. I'd thought the recommendation that the vaccine not be given to women over the age of 26 was based on effectiveness or possible side-effects, rather than on a lack of testing.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Also, a significant percentage of women will have HPV already at that age, and I seem to remember some worries about what the vaccine will do to the ones who are already infected.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*self-indulgent grumbling about how those of us who don't have it would really like the damn vaccine anyway, please?* Point.

[jrolsma.livejournal.com]

Who wants to bet that all the "it will only encourage sex!" crowd will be silent on the issue now that it affects boys as well as girls?

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

*closes eyes, sticks fingers in ears*

LA LA LA LA LA LA!!!

I'm not listening!

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Correction: It should be preventable, not curable. Vaccines do not cure, they are a means of prevention. So this could STILL be a problem. Especially since many christians who advocate no sex till marriage are trying to keep school children from getting this vaccine. Vaccinating those who already have HPV will do no good, as they will still be able to pass it on to others who have not yet recieved the vaccine. This is a big problem because HPV doesn't always have symptoms until you have cancer, most people have no idea they've contracted it, and it doesn't do as much to men as it does to women. This makes HPV potentially very dangerous, and I myself and planning on getting my first shot in August, now that insurance will cover the vaccine.

Sorry for all that, but STDs scare the shit out of me especially ones that are pretty damn fucking silent till it's too late. Get yer pap smears, girls!! (Yes, I know they are uncomfortable and they suck...)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Poor wording on my part - I meant that, with the vaccine, the problem of "oral sex causes cancer" would be curable, i.e. that this would stop being a problem, not that the cancer caused by oral sex would be curable.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

I figured you knew what you meant, but I didn't want people to get the wrong idea in that there is some cure somewhere, cause there isn't. At any rate, it wouldn't stop being a problem for many years, you'd have to wait for all the people who still have HPV to die and you'd have to vaccinate all the kids now. You'd still have one or two generations to phase out HPV to where it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

[thette.livejournal.com]

A doctor I spent an evening in the ENT ER was working on his thesis about HPV and pharyngeal cancer. I'm glad to see other people are doing it, too.

[siouxsyn.livejournal.com]

This shouldn't be news. Commonsense should say that if you'll get a myriad of diseases from unprotected sex, why would stickin' it in a different hole help? And who has even heard of dental dams?

[thathatedguy.livejournal.com]