One of my graduate students and I conducted a study on college women's attitudes toward getting the Gardasil vaccine (just before it came out) and their intentions to do so and reasons why and why not. Many who did not plan to get it believed they would have just one sexual partner and marry that person. All the points made above point to the fallacy of that approach as a protection against HPV. First, intentions do not perfectly predict behavior, next, if you are a virgin (and many are "technical" virgins only) and your partner is not, you need to factor in the sexual histories of your partner's partners and all of his/her partners which could exponentially increase your partner's and hence your exposure to dozens or hundreds of people rather than to one), most experts do not believe that condoms protect (or completely protect) against transmission of HPV and modes of transmission have been debated on this board and elsewhere, and of course the age-old issue of fidelity.

Last edited by Sophie H.; 04-26-2009 08:59 AM.
Sophie T.

CG to husband: SCC Stage 4, T4, N1, M0; non-smoker and very light social drinker; HPV+
induction chemo begun 7/07; chemo/radiation ended 10/10, first cat scan clear; scan on 5/9/08 clear, scan on 10/08 clear; scan 1/09 clear; scan 1/10 clear; passed away July 2, 2016