That jab...

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I don't tend to get The Times until rather late at night when OH returns home, and as it never occurs to me to look at the online version, as I like the good old fashioned feel of paper, I tend to be a bit late in commenting on the day's events. Actually I very rarely comment on them in this blog, not because I have nothing to say but because I think it is probably kinder not to expose you to the wide range of my opinions (my family would agree here.)

However, I am breaking ranks about the Cervical Cancer jab. My children go to a church school, and my daughter has just had the jab. She brought home screeds of paper, and I had to sign the usual paper giving permission. "Not everyone's parents, are," she told me. "Why not?" I asked (rather meanly, actually, as I had a pretty good idea.) "Not sure," she said. "Some people's parents don't approve but I'm not sure why." "Because they think you'll charge off and have sex straightaway if you do, I think," I said, "though that's probably a bit too blunt a way of expressing it." "Um," said daughter. "Don't think I will." "Good," I said, "Better to wait," and then got in my usual condom mantra - readily available from a school nurse near you.

Not that I think, even for a moment, that having the jab is going to make my daughter, or any other girl think "Right! That's it then!" After all, it's not as if cervical cancer is the only thing that can afflict one; there's the whole panoply of venereal diseases as well. And even if you do wait for the one and only there is alas no guarantee that he's waited only for you; and none that he isn't carrying the virus from even the briefest encounter.

I hope my daughter will wait until she's ready, and I really, really hope that is a good few years away yet, but I can't see that letting her have this vaccination will suddenly make her leap into bed with anyone. Frankly, I'd rather save her from the horror of cervical biopsies, about which I know far more than I'd like, and the misery of sitting in that waiting room, full of women all petrified they are about to find out they have cancer. No, I didn't, but I'd do anything to save my daughter from that, if I can.

Comments

Unknown said…
It beats me why parents are refusing to let their daughter have the jab against cervical cancer. If it were for breast cancer, I'm sure they would. But misinformed people spread their half-understood ideas, and because it involves teenage girls and sex, they immediately assume that it's immoral, or encourages immorality.
The cervical jab does not suddenly give a girl the desire, or freedom to have sex. It prevents a widespread and generally harmless virus, that is usually transmitted through sexual contact, from becoming a deadly cancer.
This attitude annoys me immensely
18 October 2008 at 02:49
Anonymous said…
Wise words. I'm surprised they didn't work this story into the recent cringe-making Ruth/Pip chats on the Archers.
18 October 2008 at 15:28
Jane Badger said…
Gillian - I entirely agree. We do have some very odd attitudes in this country.

CMM - well there's a thought! Maybe she could have discussed it with Peggy. It would have given her something else to be ghastly about.
23 October 2008 at 15:29
Juliet said…
Hear absolutely bloomin' Hear! Well said.

And on that other matter, how oh how are the Archers scriptwriters proving so good at the Pegguy/Jeck storyline while making the Pip/Izzy dialogues so utterly 100%implausible. Can it be that they all have elderly parents yet none of them have teenage daughters? Bizarre.
27 October 2008 at 12:24
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