Some Things Never Change

"We believe that medical attitudes serve to create a climate of emotional and physical estrangement, to reinforce the attitudes of acceptance and self-blame for the situations we find ourselves in. This makes it impossible to ask questions or challenge what is happening around our own health and increases the feelings of despair and feeling of not being in control. What happens in hospitals can have damaging and permanent physical and emotional effects on women's lives and basically, what we ask is to retain our dignity."

I'm sure most would agree that this is a reflection of how we women feel today with respect to the treatment we receive. The interesting thing however is, that this comment was made by a member of The Women's Health Cooperative at hearings regarding activities at National Women's Hospital in New Zealand and, that it was made in 1989. Some things never change as evidenced by the twenty-two year interval since this comment was made.

When it comes to the subject of HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection, a virus known to cause at least a half-dozen invasive cancers, these comments are even more significant. The ways in which women are treated when it comes to a cervical or anal cancer almost 100% of which are caused by HPV, this is much different than how a woman is treated who has a diagnosis of breast cancer. The former being viewed as something for which the patient is "to blame". No one can "blame" a woman for having breast cancer.

We are heading down a very slippery slope if members of the medical community begin determining the treatment a patient will receive based upon whether or not they can be "blamed" for their condition, cancer or otherwise. It is interesting because even patients with lung cancer which has long been associated with smoking and for which the patient could be blamed because it was after all, their behavior which brought about the disease, we have not seen this type of disparaging treatment.

When one's behavior becomes part of the criteria for treatment of disease then we are all in trouble. What of the patient whose heart attack was caused by their obesity and high cholesterol?

Until now, with research showing an ever enlarging group of cancers resulting from the human papillomavirus, we have not seen such bigoted perspectives by members of the medical community. Obviously when reading these initial comments it is evident that these bigoted perspectives have been long held when it comes to sexually transmitted infections and the gynecologic conditions they cause.

Hopefully with more women advocating against just this sort of behavior and for the education of women regarding their health, these attitudes will not continue for another two decades.

Fighting the Stigma of HPV

Unfortunately HPV, like other sexually transmitted infections, carries with it a stigma. I believe that this stigma is misplaced from the start. HPV is actually transmitted by skin-to-skin contact and it just so happens that genital contact is indeed a form of skin-to-skin contact. However, unlike other STI's, HPV does not require intercourse for transmission. Ongoing research continues to show transmission via other methods with some even suggesting kissing as a potential means of transmission as well as foamites (inanimate objects). So should HPV really be classified as an STI?

Stigmas are not new and continue to inflict emotional pain upon those carrying the label. In the case of HPV, such stigmas can have devastating effects when they function to silence the person infected. The embarrassment may prevent them from speaking to anyone, including those who may be able to shed more light on the virus. In the worst case, it can prevent the individual from seeing their doctor, or by the time they do, it's too late.

The ones that come to mind most often are slut, tramp, hoe, hussy and a host of others all involving the woman's sexual history and number of sexual partners. Just like getting pregnant only takes one act of intercourse so too is true of acquiring the HPV virus.

Personally, I find it very insulting when I hear people on TV joking about STI's. It makes me angry because this person is so oblivious to the harm they are perpetrating. This doesn't have to be only on TV but those people just have such a vast audience to whom they can spread their ignorance. To them it's funny.

Then again there are those who know exactly what they are doing, their actions are intentional, a case of spreading the sentiment that whomever has the humanpapilloma virus got what they deserved. Obviously the underlying message is that those with HPV have done something wrong.

Until people are educated regarding the facts about HPV nothing will change. Education needs to emphasize that HPV is contracted via skin-to-skin contact and that most importantly, the cancers caused by the most common strains of HPV, are preventable. Perhaps if people understood that HPV is also responsible for cancers of the lung, head/neck, throat and other non-sexual organs, they would be open to a more meaningful discussion.

Take advantage of any opportunity to correct those with a misperception about HPV. Learn as much as you can yourself about HPV so you can correct those misperceptions. It is alarming the number of women who still have never heard of HPV. If you are reading this then you are ahead of many others.