Yesterday wrote about my friend Phoebe, frustrated—no, pissed—that insurance won’t cover her Gardasil injections, to protect against HPV, because she’s too darn old, early fifties.
As mother of two young adult daughters I was super-aware of Gardasil as it was coming out. Recommended for young women before they become sexually active. (Another friend of mine’s daughter has been struggling for a few years with the effects of HPV infection….the daughter did get the Gardasil injections, but apparently was already infected at the time.)
What if I had sons, though? I thought about it then, and have a lot since.
Seems like this is just one more area—along with contraception, pregnancies and such–in which young women bear the entire burden.
Have just been reading, though, about Gardasil being offered for boys and male adolescents as well, the New York Times reported on it last week. Men of course don’t get cervical cancer, but they do get genital warts. Gardasil, protects against the HPV, which causes them.
But the decision to have inoculations against bad pap smears and cancer is one thing. But against genital warts…and some other rare diseases, or protecting potential sexual partners, is a very different matter than inoculations against potential cancer.
And does insurance pay for Gardasil for boys?
Some do, and some don’t.
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