Do I have to torture my daughter with a pap since she just got her period?

As if her period weren’t a gentle torture of its own, you want to march her to the doctor for a pap smear? Ahhhh! The speculum in and of itsel is enough to freak ‘em out. No, you don’t need to have your daughter get a pap smear because she got her period. The rules have changed thankfully. We used to want to have them this early, then it was changed to when your teen daughter became sexually active or just wanted to start birth control. It was changed again to three years after sexual debut (that’s fancy language for when she starts having sex) and finally it was changed most recently to the age of twenty-one. She doesn’t need a pap smear thankfully until the age of twenty-one. Wanna know why?

In part, the HPV vaccine! This vaccine that they’ve been giving to girls for the past five or so years has actually started to do something we can see. The cervical changes we were seeing on young women are not being seen anymore. We didn’t want to know about the changes, but now, we don’t have to not know, because the pap smears being done at even twenty-one years are showing minimal if any dysplasia or changes of the cervix because these girls have had the HPV vaccine. Before, eighty percent of women over the age of fifty would have changes. This will no longer be the case because of this vaccine. Whew!

So, no pap until age twenty-one whether your teen girl is sexually active or not with guys or girls. Awesome! Oh and your son can get the HPV vaccine too and in January California law will allow them to consent on their own for for the vaccine.

You can find more answers like these because there are seventeen in all in the e-book by Dr. O called “Are You Serious? It’s Just Sex!”

Related posts:

1. What Does The HPV Shot Have To Do With HPV Disease?
2. Teen Boys and the HPV Vaccine
3. A Twist On Betrayal

Although it is approved for the prevention of cervical cancer and genital warts in girls, its approval in boys is just for the prevention of genital warts. These warts are the second most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in teens present in seventy percent of sexually active teens; however, it does not have to be spread sexually. It is spread through skin-to-skin contact and so can be passed from mother to daughter as the baby is delivered through the vaginal canal as easily as it can be spread through non –intercourse sexual behavior like dry humping and mutual masturbation.

Genital warts are bumps or warts on the genital skin that can cause pain, itching, bleeding or no symptoms at all. The practical problems though are nothing compared to the blow your teen’s self-esteem must withstand after receiving the diagnosis of genital warts.

Having genital warts can influence a teen’s identity development such that they believe that “No one can love them” since they have warts. They may “settle” in relationships and keep themselves in a violent relationship or a position to be taken advantage of because of this belief. The ripple effect of this diagnosis is significant. Prevention is significantly better than cure, which genital warts cannot be.

Whether you are vaccinating your daughter or your son, get your questions answered about the vaccine that prevents the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the entire world and prevents the second most common STD among sexually active teens (present in seventy percent of sexually active teens), the HPV vaccine.

Related posts:

1. What Does The HPV Shot Have To Do With HPV Disease?
2. Pap Smear Bap Smear
3. Helping Teen Boys Seek Medical Care

HPV is not human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HPV is a virus that has a hundred types. It causes warts on various parts on the body like fingers, legs, toes or feet. There are 40 types that cause genital problems and there are four in the vaccine. They selected these four types because they cause the majority of genital disease: vulvar cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, anal cancer, penal cancer and genital warts.  The virus is spread through skin-to-skin contact and so doesn’t need to be transmitted through sexual intercourse, with babies sometimes being infected by passing through their mother’s vaginal canal.

Because over 70% of teens who are sexually active have HPV, it is best to vaccinate teens before they become sexually active. This is why the age to begin vaccination started so seemingly young, 9.  Vaccination before any sexual activity approximated an effectiveness of over 98%.

Along with this vaccine there have been changes made in how OB-Gyns have screened for HPV disease on the cervix in teens. Instead of rushing to do a pap (sampling cells from the cervix), or biopsy (remove tissue from the cervix to evaluate it), Ob-Gyns are now choosing to watch and wait.  With no disease the pap is done yearly and with disease the pap is more frequent (6-12 mo) until normal.

A first pap is done three years after the date of first intercourse or at 21 years old.  HPV is a very important disease process in the lives of teens and women. Most teens aren’t going to let their parents know before they become sexually active so it’s important to take a page from the hepatits B vaccine, which is also spread through sexual contact, and vaccinate early.

Related posts:

1. Teen Boys and the HPV Vaccine
2. Pap Smear Bap Smear
3. Reforming Healthcare For Teens