Condoms Will Not Protect Al Hunt's Teen Daughter

By John R. Diggs, Jr., MD
May 29, 2002

The book "When Wish Replaces Thought" should top the summer reading list of Al Hunt, Wall Street Journal columnist.

He wishes that condoms had turned around the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.

He wishes that condoms were some sort of safety net for his teenaged daughter. He wishes that safer sex were actually safer.

He wishes that self-promoter/researcher Douglas Kirby actually could prove sex education programs help adolescents.

These are my conclusions after reading Hunt's editorial.

Sorry Al, It Won't Work

Sorry, Mr. Hunt but instead of wishing, you need to do what soul singer Aretha Franklin suggested long ago -- "You better think!"

Think about the fact that the Centers for Disease Control say there are 65 million people in the USA with incurable STD. Incurable, Mr. Hunt! Think about the fact that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published a study in July 2001 showing lack of scientific proof of condom effectiveness for 6.5 of the 8 diseases they studied.

Mr. Hunt wishes that condoms were significantly protective. Study after study shows several shortcomings. First, people don't like condoms. It is pretty simple - intimacy and barriers don't mix. The most intensive condom promotions only garner 65 percent use at last intercourse. Second, condoms break and slip off frequently. Several studies show the overwhelming number of condom users have had this experience within the past year. Third, even when they stay on, the NIH study shows there is no science to prove they prevent disease.

The results can be devastating. Hunt should be especially attentive because women suffer the most. Cervical cancer is 'for women only.' It results from prolonged infection with the incurable STD human papilloma virus (HPV). Women nearly have the market cornered on infertility as a result of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and abortion. NIH says that there is no proven effectiveness for condoms in the prevention of HPV, gonorrhea, chlamydia or genital herpes. Good news for Mr. Hunt: apparently there is a fifty percent reduction in gonorrhea, but only for men. Does he have a son?

Woman In Valtrex Commercial

The woman kayaking in the Valtrex television commercials looks like she is having fun. Genital herpes doesn't stop her. She even has a boyfriend. The commercial admits Valtrex does not cure herpes and that her unsuspecting boyfriend can still catch herpes from her. (Hope he sees the commercial.) Herpes is for life. That beaucoup bucks are being spent on television commercials for this drug is an indicator that genital herpes infection is very common.

Hunt wishes Douglas Kirby were an objective scientist. Instead, Kirby inventively says the safe sex programs in which he has a personal stake are the ones that work. How did Kirby get that deal? He is at once the judge and a baker in a pie contest.

Even Douglas Kirby publicly admits abstinence-until-marriage looks more and more attractive since his daughter has become an adolescent. On the other hand, Hunt wants to make sure his charges are packing condoms. Whose child would you rather be - Hunt's or Kirby's? Whose child would you rather your child date? Surely, the condom carriers will have some left over. Do you want your child getting leftovers?

One is sure to identify the wrong solution to a problem if one does not even identify the problem correctly. The problem is not teenage pregnancy - it is, in part, unmarried teenage pregnancy. The decade of the highest rate of teenage pregnancy was the 1950s. It was not a problem because those women were . married. However, since the 1970s, 'teenage pregnancy' is a social, fiscal, and health problem because these teens are not married.

Not School Subjects

Ideally, neither sex education nor abstinence until marriage teaching should be school subjects. Parents should handle it. Hunt tries to paint sex a purely biological function, making social conservative moral concerns irrelevant There is indeed a moral component to sex, and we all know it. Rover does not care if Fifi fools around with Rex, but Bill will be more than a little upset if his wife Tiffany is steaming up the windows with Eric. I am not willing to overburden public schools with the added assignment of teaching morals in part because they continue to fail to teach English, math, history, and science at a high level. Anything beyond reproductive physiology, such as sex education, inherently has a moral component. This is the parents' territory.

Many parents pull back from offering the consistent message that sex should be reserved for marriage because some adolescents threaten to 'have sex anyway.' First, sometimes these bold statements are not true plans but tests of the strength of a parental position. As soon as the parent waffles, teens know parents are being killjoys rather than having serious concerns about safety. Second, parental disapproval is associated with decreased rates of teenage sexual activity. Third, if the teen 'has sex anyway,' the teen bears the responsibility for the consequences because she violated parental authority. Alternatively, if the parent said, "Use a condom," then the responsibility shifts to the parent although the teen still bears the physical and emotional consequences.

Lastly, the fall back position - "protection" - has been shown to be inadequate, according to the NIH, for a parent who wants healthy children. Parents wish the solution were as simple as making sure condoms are available. Raising teens is serious work and the simple answer is no solution.

Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hunt. Wistful wishes will not protect your daughter. You need science. She needs wisdom and firm direction. Neither comes in a foil wrapper. Listen to Aretha, "You better think!" - now, not later.