You have your daughter enrolled in an HPV immunization program, right? If you're in the UK, she'll be given Cervarix, which prevents cervical cancer. Then you hear about Gardasil, which is a little more expensive, but also protects against genital warts, which are also caused by the human papillomavirus that causes several types of cancer. Do you:

A) Let her take Cervarix. The DoH knows what they're doing. If she needed Gardasil, they'd provide Gardasil.
B) Opt out of Cervarix, and pay out of pocket for Gardasil. Two birds with one stone, you know?
C) Let her take Cervarix, and still pay out of pocket for Gardasil. You can never be too careful!

Would you be surprised to learn that, out of 520 sexual health professionals in the UK, 90 percent say they'd pay out of pocket for Gardasil? Or that 61 percent of clinicians with girls in the program already had, and some even gave their girls both? And who can blame them? In 2008, 92,525 cases of genital warts were treated, and of those, about 70,000 become repeat customers.

"The department chose Cervarix for the national HPV immunization program against cervical cancer as it offered the NHS best overall value," said a spokesperson for NHS. Psh. It totally wasn't the price tag, you guys. Geez.

Cervarix comes up for reevaluation in April and the NHS says they will take Gardasil's effectiveness into consideration before making a decision.

(More Sex Feed)