According to a recent study by federal health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in four teenage girls are infected with at least one of the four most common sexually transmitted diseases: genital herpes, human papilomavirus (HPV), trichomoniasis and chlamydia. At least 15 percent of infected women had more than one of the diseases.
 There are 3.2 million teenage women between 14 and 19 carrying at least one of the four most common STDs. |
According to Forhan, there are 3.2 million teenage women between the ages of 14 and 19 who are infected with at least one of the four diseases, and the rate in the African American community is twice that of the national average.
The study claims that the two most common STDs among all the participants tested were HPV, at 18 percent, and chlamydia, at 4 percent.
While chlamydia can be easily treated and cured with antibiotics, HPV can be more serious. There is no cure for HPV infection.
Fortunately, for most infected individuals, the infection clears on its own. But for thousands of women annually, HPV causes cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 11,000 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 2008 in the United States, and more than 3,000 women will die from this disease this year.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Latina and African American women are approximately 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer than Caucasian women, and are more likely than their white peers to die from this disease. In New York City, minority women are less likely to obtain cervical cancer screenings. Known as a Pap test or Pap smear, the exam increases chances of detecting the disease in its earliest, most curable stages.
Physicians say that individuals are often unaware they are infected with HPV, because there are generally no signs or symptoms. Although some infected individuals have visible genital warts or develop pre-cancerous tissue in the cervix, vulva, anus or penis, HPV infection can spread with or without any apparent signs. This makes the spread of the infection all the more frequent.
The CDC estimates that at least 50 percent of sexually active women and men are infected with HPV at some point in their lives, while 80 percent of women have been infected with HPV by age 50.
Access to health care, sexual education sorely needed
The good news is that there is a vaccine for HPV; the bad news is that accessibility to this vaccine is a mixed bag.
According to a 2007 report by Betsy Gotbaum, Public Advocate for the City of New York, “the HPV vaccine is unavailable to New Yorkers at Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s immunization and STD clinics, and available at only about half of the Health and Hospitals Corporation’s Child and Teen Health Clinics.”
The report also finds that costs to the uninsured seeking HPV vaccination vary widely, making the creation of publicly funded screening and immunization programs critical.
These findings point to the multi-faceted oppression that women must endure in a patriarchal capitalist society. Instead of prioritizing young women’s health and opening a national conversation on this alarming phenomenon, the same patterns that created the problem continue unaddressed.
In the corporate media, women are reduced to sexual objects and implicitly told they must “put out” in order to keep a man’s interest. At the same time, the open expression and public acknowledgement of their sexuality is described in the most degrading terms as “whorish” and unladylike.
Consequently, although many young women are having sex, they are often doing so in secret. These circumstances are less conducive to open dialogue about the risks of STDs and more conducive to unsafe sex.
Although the risks to women’s sexual health have social roots, women are largely left to face them alone. This line of thinking runs throughout the Bush administration’s health policy and is reflected in the “abstinence-only” sex education promoted by the right wing—when they promote sex education at all.
Additionally, framing the issue of women’s health strictly in terms of sexual education does little to help young, working-class women. Access to high-quality clinics, regular medical exams and proper treatment is fully guaranteed only to those who can afford to pay for it. Overcoming such economic barriers is hardly a concern in the minds of the capitalist politicians who dictate health policies and priorities.
Cuba sets the standard
Socialists advocate for an altogether different approach to sexual education and gender roles in our present society. “You need to combine both an epidemiological and a gender approach to these very intimate issues,” said Mariela Castro Espín, director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), in a 2006 MEDICC Review interview.
“We have to recognize which elements of the traditional masculinity or femininity are actually doing us damage. What parts of the picture actually take away from our freedom, fulfillment and dignity. We have to take a hard look at these things, or else we’ll keep passing them down from generation to generation,” Espín continued.
CENESEX works with young people and medical schools throughout Cuba to promote safe sex among all age groups, sexual orientations and genders. Espín explained, “This is why, for example, our posters and other materials emphasize that protection of your partner against HIV and STDs in general is a sign of caring, and that means it’s a responsibility of both partners in a relationship.”
Furthermore, sexual education is complemented by guaranteed access to health care for all working people—women, men, children and the elderly alike. All Cubans are entitled to free health care.
The Cuban Revolution shows what is possible when the working class holds state power and controls the media, the education system and—most importantly—the social wealth that is collectively created by the workers. Ultimately, we must do the same if we aim to remold our society’s approach to sexuality and public health.
