SAVE THE VAGINAS!

October is breast cancer awareness month and everywhere people are declaring SAVE THE TATAS and I <3 Boobies! How fantastic! Breast cancer awareness has become so mainstreamed that we pronounce our love of boobies daily (especially boys...those dirty dirty men).

I applaud everyone for this. HUZZAH HUZZAH! Ladies, mammograms and self-breast exams are SO important. The founders of the I <3 Boobies movement did something amazing and took this taboo subject and made it conversation safe - better yet they made it IMPORTANT for conversations.

And now, I feel like, in addition, we should move to the next taboo, yet cancer inflicted subject. That's right ladies, your cervix.

Now we can mainstream this with "I <3 Vajayjay" bracelets but that's probably going to stay a little too taboo. Can you imagine Meg Whitman or Sarah Palin with one of those bracelets on? But maybe we can come up with an approach that's less "vulgar" by their standards. Because, they have cervixes, too. This is not a problem that we should just sweep under the rugs because it means we (gasp) have to talk about sexual safety and health.

HPV is NOT funny. Nor is cervical cancer. 

So how, you may ask, can we save ourselves from it?

Yes, it is very important to get the HPV vaccine - I got mine in 2007. But HPV is not the only thing that causes cervical cancer and, like all vaccines, it is not 100% effective.

LADIES WE NEED TO PROTECT OURSELVES AGAINST STDs! (i prefer d over i, it just sounds better. an STi is a car to me...)

We all need to work on this; myself included. Condoms. Get them. They're cheap but if you don;t want to buy them make the boys buy them. Go to Planned Parenthood and get some. Ask a friend. Ask me. There is nothing more important than protecting ourselves.

Let me tell you about a little scare I had two years ago, without any fault of my own.

From 20-21 I was sure I had cervical cancer. Never mind the fact that I had gotten the HPV vaccine over 2 years before and took precautions to protect myself. My gyno scared me.  

Let me background with the fact that your immune system does not fully develop until you are 21. On women, this affects cervical health.

So in summer 2009 I went to the gyno for my annual check up. And was devastated to find out a few weeks later that my cells were abnormal and pre-cancerous. From that point on I was told I would have to return to the doctors every 3 months for a painful procedure called a colposcopy. Gyno's do this to catch cervical cancer early so you can fight it by removing the cancerous cells. This enables women to be pregnant and carry a fetus full term.
As fate would have it, shortly after my 21st I found out my abnormal cells disappeared with my updated immune system. And that I was fine. I did not have HPV. I did not have cervical cancer. The thing is, I'm not alone. I know several other women like me who went through this scary process. 

So because of this I promote health and safety for my cervix. I go to Planned Parenthood often.

I LOVE MY VAJAYJAY!! 

Do you love yours?