Why is there a stigma for HPV?

Question

I find the ignorance that even health practioners have about HPV is ridiculous! Children get strains of the HPV virus. It is not strictly a sexually transmitted disease even though warts and sometimes cancerous cells emerge in the cervix. Many people who have sex get the cold virus through sexual activity. Let's get real about our morality.

Anyway, I am interested in knowing why is there a stigma for HPV and other diseases that are sometimes but not always caused by sexual intercouse. (i.e. Mono is thought to be caught by kissing; it happens more easily that way, but definitely not only strictly that way.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7762199

I thoughtfully disagree with the respondees. Please get checked, even if you are not sexually active. This disease is cancerous and the information out there is incorrect.

If you associate the disease with sexual activity, you'll assume someone who gets the disease if promiscuous. You may not have a problem with someone else's activity, but they may still feel your judgment.

Answer 1

To what Tiff said that just goes to show how ignorant and uneducated humans are by nature. To say that is jus tthe way it is because that is just what people thing of is just making excuses. Yes it is true but why because people dont care to educate themselves so that they think of the other ways they can acquire this illness. Do they also think of the fact that 1 of 3 people carry it. If you always think of it as an STD then do you know how high you chances are of contracting this by the time you are 30? Good luck with that closed minded people

Answer 2

Because the kind of HPV that people generally think of when someone says HPV is almost always sexually transmitted.

It doesn't have anything to do with morality, and I don't feel there is a stigma for it at all. It simply has to do with the commonality of the word, like if someone says gay, you don't think happy, you think homosexual. Just like when someone says HPV people generally think genital warts or a sexually transmitted disease.

Answer 3

I applaud TIff she stated that very well and I couldn't have said it better my self. Word association is how things are labeled. Like Tiff said the word gay is not associated with "happy" it's associated with a homosexual. Job well done Tiff!