Is the HPV Commotion Having a Negative Impact upon Sexual Health Education?

As mentioned previously, the HPV vaccine is implemented for women ages 9-26. Most provinces choose to implement the vaccine around the onset of puberty. Puberty is an extremely critical time for women, due to hormonal changes, adjustments to bodily and self image and more. At this time, women are vulnerable to eating disorders; low self esteem and drug abuse. This is more evident in women who go through puberty at an earlier age. So what does this have to do with HPV?
Earlier, we mentioned how the HPV vaccine has a negative impact upon sex education programs. The guidelines for Canadian sexual health outline two goals: 1. to help people achieve positive outcomes (e.g. self-esteem, respect for self and others, non-exploitive sexual relations, rewarding sexual relationships, the joy of desired parenthood); 2. to avoid negative outcomes such as unwanted pregnancies and STI’s. The reality is that the second goal is emphasized much more within the classroom and sex is introduced as fearful. The current HPV commotion has since been added to this fear, tying sex to cervical cancer.
Problems associated with the onset of puberty can be addressed and taught within the classroom, if sex education programs would attend to the first goal of the Canadian guidelines for sexual education. HPV vaccines are currently being implemented within schools with little explanation as to why these women need it, except for the fact that it “prevents” cervical cancer (only 4 strands that is). Current sex education programs are, in fact addressing physical pubertal changes, but ignoring the emotional aspects mentioned above, while simultaneously eliciting fear in young girls through the implementation of the HPV vaccine. The 300 million dollars Harper and the rest of the Conservative government have funded to the HPV vaccination, should invest some more money on workshops for improving women’s emotional well-being. Workshops on self-esteem are extremely crucial to achieving goal number one. The relatively low instances of cervical cancer in Canada indicate that 300 million dollars should therefore be allotted to other emotional hardships facing young women at this critical age.