I am a couple of months away from my last of three HPV inoculations. I had been to a lecture of women doctors and the news about cervical cancer and the virus HPV was very scary. The previous belief suggested that only young women needed the injection. In fact old broads like me couldn’t get it after 35. It turns out that is absolutely false. The cells don’t denature after 30 and the study suggests that up to age 49 and beyond you are atnrisk. So off to the doctor I went for my needle. In Ontario where I live, they give the shot free to grade 8 girls. There has been a push to immunize the boys as well (they are carriers). So far the Province won’t pay for it, but that doesn’t mean that boys don’t need it.
I’ll pay for my son’s shot next year. I’ll tell him it’s in solidarity with the girls in his class. That’s only partially true. It’s responsible to the young women he will have future contact with, but it also might likely prevent him getting throat cancer.
The study from the Univeristy of Ohio says that there is strong evidence linking oral sex and cancer.
Researchers have found a 225 percent increase in oral cancer cases in the US from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men, Gillison said.
“When you compare people who have an oral infection or not … the single greatest factor is the number of partners on whom the person has performed oral sex,” said Gillison, who has been researching HPV and cancer for 15 years.
“When the number of partners increases, the risk increases,” she said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington today (AEST).
Previous studies have suggested that people who have performed oral sex on six or more partners over a lifetime face an eight-fold higher risk of acquiring HPV-related head or neck cancer than those with fewer than six partners, she said.
Any time you can eliminate safely a possible cancer shouldn’t you be lining up in droves to get jabbed? According to the doctor I heard spoke at the Federation of Medical Women lecture, there is some evidence that the HPV shot lowers the chance of getting breast cancer! Even if it doesn’t and only prevents cervical and throat cancer- I’m in. And I hope you will be too.
