By Lauren Tuck (Intern, POZ) I recently read an article in Glamour magazine that highlighted the paranoia some young women harbor about developing breast cancer. Dina Roth Port, the article's author, said her often paralyzing fear led her to insist her doctor prescribe her a mammogram in her early 30s although the recommended age to begin yearly exams is 40.
Port maintained she wasn't alone in her obsession--a viewpoint backed up by a Glamour poll that found 82 percent of women said they're afraid of getting breast cancer at some point in their lives.
This staggering statistic made me wonder: why do some young women spend so much time fixated on breast cancer, which will most likely not affect them until they are much older? Conversely, why do they have such little concern for other health issues that are far more likely to inflict them, like HIV? As a young woman myself, I know no other woman my age who has forced (or even asked) her doctor to give her an HIV test.
Women torment over the infamous fact that 12.2 percent of us will develop breast cancer at some point in our lives, yet, most of that percentage will not receive their diagnosis until after becoming octogenarians. In contrast, HIV is becoming more widespread among adolescents and young adults. Every year 30 percent of all new diagnoses in the United States are among people under the age of 29. While HIV begins to inflict a younger population, the same is not true for breast cancer. Rates of breast cancer among this demographic have remained constant for 25 years.
Ironically, the development of breast cancer remains indefinable before onset and basically unpreventable, while on the other hand HIV, which in recent years has morphed from a death sentence to more of a chronic and manageable disease, is avoidable. Women (and men) disregard the multitude of available prevention measures for defending themselves against HIV, and often possess a blasé attitude towards safe sex.
Unlike Port's anecdote demanding her doctor to address her concern over a nonexistent lump in her breast, we rarely hear about the women who run to their doctor's offices to get tested for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) the morning after they have unprotected sex or a condom breaks in the midst of wild passion.
I remember when a friend was dumped from a long-term monogamous relationship and out of retaliation she had multiple sexual partners while inebriated. During our morning-after phone calls she would brush off her lack of condom use, explaining that she continued to take her birth control pills.
Throughout these conversations she also panicked about a strange new allergy she had developed. After a single mild outbreak, she immediately made an appointment with her doctor to discover the source. Yet after months of my dropping hints about getting tested for HIV and other STIs, she had yet to follow my advice.
Even after my expressions of distress, she only started worrying about her unsafe sex practices when her gynecologist suggested HIV and STI testing. Fortunately for her, the end result was negative. She quickly went back to her old ways, in essence, tossing an implied "I told you so" my way.
Why do young women spend so much time preoccupied with a one-in-a-million chance of developing a far-fetched allergy or worry about dying young when the likelihood is so remote? If women in general have these fears, then why don't young women in particular fear HIV? And the most irksome of all: Why does breast cancer get an entire month and HIV/AIDS gets only one day?
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and support of the cause is everywhere: Ralph Lauren's pink ponies, the Empire State Building set aglow in blinding magenta, football uniforms, Facebook statuses, purses, pillows, push-up bras, the list goes on and on.
I propose in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month to wear red instead. Honestly, it's a much more flattering color, makes the eyes pop. When your friends tell you that you're wearing the wrong color, you can educate them on the AIDS epidemic and try to convince them to get an HIV test.
This post makes use of statistical data in a manner more consistent with those who would marginalize HIVers that those who stand with us. Throwing unrelated percentages against one another for hyperbole serves neither one's credibility or the health of the community.
A closer review of epidemiological data shows, however, that for the year 2007 the CDC estimated the incidence of new HIV diagnosis for women was 11.8 per 100,000 women. The incidence of breast cancer diagnosis for the same year across all races was 122.9 per 100,000 women, and breast cancer mortality was 24.0 per 100,000 women. As a 28-year survivor with HIV and the son of an 18-year breast cancer survivor, I find that the incidence numbers clearly argue for more concern about breast cancer among women, even as I wish that not a single person would become newly infected with HIV.
Rates of HIV incidence have not risen among those under 25 not because other disease communities have exaggerated the impact of their afflictions. The argument for self-care in preventing HIV transmission must be made on its own merits, not in competition with other disease communities.
It is a shame many women equate "HIV testing" with "dirty filthy whore". Out of all the friendships I have with women, when I ask if they have ever been tested for HIV they reply "why? I am not doing anything wrong!". (I don't share my + status with my friends)I have one friend in particular who sleeps with a married man and has never used a condom. She told me this was ok because he was "clean" and "only slept with his wife". It is amazing how so many women take society's approval over their own health.
When I was initially infected with HIV, I was very young, did not use drugs, and had only two boyfriends before I decided to go unprotected with my 3rd after I ended up pregnant anyways using condoms. I recall asking for an HIV test but being refused one by the medical professionals because I was not considered to be in their risk pool. And had my partner not disclosed I may very well have spent the rest of my life believing I did not need to take a pesky ol' HIV test. And I'm not sure what the statistics were at the time when I was infected but I know the cases have risen dramatically in 2010. I do wish mainstream media geared towards women would wake up and take notice that today it may not be a common female disease but it sure will be if it's shoved into the corner and looked at as the disease "other people get". For as open as today's woman wants to be with her sexuality, many don't take responsibility for ensuring the body they love (and love to share) is healthy and safe without fear of persecuting labels.
IF your friends with Herpes (HSV-1, HSV-2), HPV (Human Papillomavirus), HIV or any other STD, please ask them to check out SayYnow.com.THANKS