Hey, parents: Kids aren't using HPV vaccine as a license for sex

[HuckleB]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-hpv-vaccine-wont-cause-sex-balancing-0202-20160202-column.html

"...

As reported Monday, the Centers for Disease Control released an updated immunization schedule to protect adolescents against the human papillomavirus using the 9vHPV vaccine, an updated version that protects against 80 percent of the cervical, vulvar and anal cancers caused by HPV, which is usually contracted through sexual contact. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommend all boys and girls receive the vaccine by age 11 or 12, and that children who may have been exposed to sexual abuse receive the vaccine by age 9.

"The goal is to immunize children when there's no risk of them having been exposed yet," Alix Casler, medical director of pediatrics at Orlando Health Physicians Associates, told me Monday. "It's the concept of putting on your seat belt before you even turn on the engine. You don't wait until you're about to pull onto the highway."

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n a 2012 survey, 87 percent of teenagers said it would be "much easier" to postpone sexual activity and avoid pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Thirty-eight percent of teens said their parents most influenced their decisions about sex, compared to 22 percent who said friends most influence their decisions.

And when a 2015 CDC report found a sharp decline in the number of teenagers engaging in sexual intercourse, some medical experts chalked it up to the HPV vaccine and its surrounding conversation.

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Interesting stuff.