GUEST BLOGGER, RACHEL HAUCK
I'm so thrilled to have Rachel as our guest blogger! She's a good friend to all of us, and her new books LOST IN NASHVEGAS is fabulous!
Here's Rachel:
I’m Telling Everyone
If you watch TV at all, or even in passing, you’ve seen the commercial about HPV, the Human Papillomavirus. Concerned looking actresses gaze into the camera and declare, “I’m telling every one I know.” HPV, we’re shockingly told, can cause cervical cancer. The commercial pans to another concerned actress. “Cancer,” she says in shock, “caused by a virus.”
A virus? Like the flu virus, or a cold virus? Or as my husband recently learned, ringworm can be picked up in the air. Is this commercial telling me there is a virus in the air, so severe, women might get cervical cancer? The commercial tells us to ask our doctor, get tested. They show us a mother cuddling her young teen daughter saying, “I’m going to ask her doctor how to prevent cervical cancer on her next visit.”
Okay, something’s up. I must learn more. So I Google HPV. The commercial is incredibly, stupidly misleading. How can they even make a commercial like this and leave out one very, very important fact? HPV is an STD. Yeah, that’s right. A Sexually Transmitted Disease. If you are in a monogamous, long term relationship, HPV is no where near a threat to you. And should we be surprised that an STD might cause cancer? I don’t know of any STD that is health friendly.
HPV does not only effect women. It effects men too. With cancer. In the genital area. (I’ll leave it at that.) Here’s what the Center for Disease Control documents about HPV:
“Genital HPV infection is a sexually transmitted disease caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). Human papillomavirus is the name of a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different strains or types. More than 30 of these viruses are sexually transmitted, and they can infect the genital area of men and women including the skin of the penis, vulva (area outside the vagina), or anus, and the linings of the vagina, cervix, or rectum.
Most people who become infected with HPV will not have any symptoms and will clear the infection on their own. Some of these viruses are called "high-risk" types, and may cause abnormal Pap tests. They may also lead to cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus, or penis. Others are called "low-risk" types, and they may cause mild Pap test abnormalities or genital warts. Genital warts are single or multiple growths or bumps that appear in the genital area, and sometimes are cauliflower shaped.”
How common is HPV?
“Approximately 20 million people are currently infected with HPV. At least 50 percent of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives. By age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV infection. About 6.2 million Americans get a new genital HPV infection each year.”
Rachel here:
Wow, those numbers are staggering, and there is no cure. Why is the commercial omitting such critical data? Why are we not hearing about the true solution? Remain sexually pure. Monogamous with the one you married.
What’s the message behind showing a mother with her young teen daughter saying, “I’m going to ask her doctor …” Hello? Mom. Tell her to be pure. Wait for marriage to have sex. It’s possible. Anymore, down right necessary for human health.
Man, this country pitches a fit over teen smoking, but we’re going to sigh and toss up our hands on casual sexual activity? No! It’s time to raise the bar. Woman, we were made for something higher and better than this. Why are we playing around with this kind of fire. Are we not intelligent, thinking beings with the ability to reason and control our actions?
These commercial strike me as propaganda for an agenda: Moral relativism.Yet we can’t ignore the multi-layered impact of sexual immorality.
Physical. Over 200 STD strains now. When I was growing up in the ‘70s, we worried about 2, maybe 3.
Emotional. Sex is a designed-by-God emotional communication meant to draw a husband and wife together. You can think all day long that you’re having sex without emotional attachments, but you’re only fooling yourself.
Unlike the cast of Friends, it’s not easy to bounce back from heartbreak and one night stands. Pizza and beer with your friends doesn’t cut it. Each sexual encounter is an attachment. In fact, it’s not the wedding ceremony that makes a couple married, it’s the consummation of the ceremony, er, the honeymoon, that makes them married.
If the cast of Friends were “real” people, five of the six would be riddled with an STD.
Spiritual. Sexual activity has as spiritual element. The Apostle Paul tells us all other sins are outside the body, but sexual immorality is a sin against the body. He says we make ourselves one with the person we sleep with.
HPV is more than a scare of cervical cancer. It’s a sign post on the moral road of destruction our nation is traveling. So, do what the commercial says. Tell someone about HPV. Give them the facts. All of them.
****
On a lighter note, thanks to my GirlsWriteOut friends for letting me rant on their blog. I love and treasure each one of these woman and the impact they’ve had on my life and my writing.
My book, Lost In NashVegas from WestBow Press is in stores now!
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15 Comments:
Fantastic post. I work for an OB/GYN. We've seen a huge increase in the number of HPV patients, all young women who've bought into the myth of recreational sex. It's fun, they'll say. Oh. My. Goodness. Baseball is fun. Going to the movies is fun. Sexual intimacy is so much more than "fun" that it's beyond description. Marriage rocks! I wish more young people believed that.
Thanks for sharing your heart, Rachel. I love what you said about raising the bar. I want to always strive to do that in all areas of my life.
Your words continually challenge me. Thank you for being that kind of friend!
And thanks for visiting our blog! :-) I echo Colleen's sentiments about your book--it's AWESOME!!!
Great post, Rachel. "Tell her to be pure. Wait for marriage to have sex," you said.
K: Amen and amen. I've "preached" that for years! In fact, I have a novel (unpubbed) with that theme! Yes, let's raise the bar, Rachel, as you said.
Thanks again for sharing on this very relevant--and life or death--issue.
The truth is so much more important than an agenda. Thanks for sharing it, Rachel and the Girls Write Out.
Hi all,
Isn't it amazing what isn't being said. I was floored when I learned the truth.
I think we should do with the commercial says, "Tell someone."
To my girlswriteout friends, love you guys and thanks again for having me and for supporting me in so many ways!
Love, Rachel
Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!
I appreciate knowing this, Rachel, especially since my dil died of cervical cancer. I was devastated when I first heard the commercial. You wonder if there had been a way of preventing it. But she was married and hers was not from the HPV, but from smoking. Yeah. Smoking. Seems that little cigaret does more than just lung cancer and heart dieease.
Who knew? Thanks for the information.
And Lost in Nashvegas has strong characters and a wonderful story! You "done good" Rachel.
Amen. Amen. Amen. I heard recently that cervical cancer is becoming epidemic and that most cases could be avoided simply by choosing monogamy or abstinence over pre-marital/casual sex. What a shame. May the truth be made known to all those who are being misled.
First of all . . .should've read this earlier in the day . . .before I headed to the Christian book store. Now I gotta go back and get Rachel's book.
On the HPV/Cervical cancer. I have a friend who had a hysterectomy at 32 because of cervical cancer. Not sure what the cause of hers was . . .never felt that was my business. I also have a family member who has dealt with cells "on the verge of" cervical cancer that keep coming back. She and her husband were both cheated on by former spouses. . . we suspect that's how she "picked up" HPV. So I can understand the commercial .. . but totally agree on the message they should be sending!
Heather,
Great point in how you can pick up an STD from cheating spouses. The idea isn't to be to look down on those who have it, but if we as a social whole modify our behavior, the less likely innocent people will be to pick up such dreadful diseases.
And, please, run to your local bookstore for Lost In NashVegas. GRIN.
Thanks everyone!
Rachel . . . hoping you didn't think I was disagreeing with you there. I definitely think the societal mind set regarding sex needs to be changed. Just can see the benefit of having the test on a yearly basis. I know too many Christians who've either cheated or been cheated on. That doesn't change how I feel about teaching kids about abstinence. I taught in a public high school and was floored when they brought in a group that talked about staying sexual pure and even talked about how they could choose to be a "virgin again" as they called it.
Going to go and see if NashVegas is in the store tomorrow!
Hi Rachel,
Interesting post. This is May Vanderbilt, fellow Christian writer and blogger. http://goodgirllit.blogspot.com
I was just washing the dishes, thinking it over, and I think there's one thing I hadn't thought of before.
Let's say you teach your daughter to remain pure and don't get her vaccinated. And then, she does remain pure. (Hooray!) And eventually she meets the man of her dreams, a born-again Christian, and they get married.
Everything's fine, right? Actually, men are the carriers of HPV and often don't know they have it because they will exhibit no signs. Of the 200 strains, only a few have outward symptoms. So she could still get this from her sweet husband. After all, Jesus is the lord of second chances.
The point is that even if you remain pure, you could still get this. It seems like the vaccine is a great idea, especially when combined with a strong family and their teachings growing up.
So maybe education is the best way to educate people about their choices. My dear sweet grandmother died from pancreatic cancer and it broke my heart. I think anything we can do to eradicate it is good work.
Love your work! Thanks so much for you great post!
May
Probably a lot of us have wondered about the validity of that commercial, yet with life so busy, who remembers to follow up? Thanks for doing that for us, Rachel. Amazing stuff we're being fed.
Thank you so much for it. I'm a single virgin. (Do you say that out loud?) Anyway, the women in my Bible study were floored when I said I hadn't been tested. (Why give the doctor good money when there is no way I could have picked it up.) I pointed out it was a STD and was told, no that's not true. Yes, it is - you can't believe everything you see on tv.
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