Dr. Wes Crenshaw, in this week's Double Take, says that while Gardasil and Cervarix prevent the worst strains of the most common STI known to humankind, getting the vaccine is not about sex. It’s about protecting your children and their future partners.

Wes: I stared blankly at the Associated Press headline: “Kansas teens less likely to be vaccinated against HPV.” Given how things have gone lately around here, I wasn’t terribly surprised as I clicked up the Aug. 3 story on my iPhone. It claimed that only 12 percent of Kansas teens had received all three doses of either Gardasil or Cervarix, the two human papillomavirus vaccines currently available.

That’s one of the two lowest rates in the country. Not only was that horrifying, it didn’t make any sense. Few teen girls I know have skipped the vaccine. I thought it had become a non-issue.

Double Take columnists Gabe Magee and Dr. Wes Crenshaw

Unfortunately for the story authors, but fortunately for Kansans, “12 percent” has no basis in reality — at least none that I could find. That same day, the Topeka Capital-Journal claimed the number to be 21 percent male and female combined, which is close to the CDC’s number of 25 percent for girls and 20 percent for boys. However, the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care (KFMC) cites the CDC in claiming low vaccination rates — just 8.6 percent of boys and 17.2 percent of girls in Kansas. This makes one feel like screaming, “Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” because unlike mid-2015 presidential polls, these numbers really matter.

Regardless of which number you believe, the majority of Kansas parents apparently aren’t getting the message, despite our lively 11-year dialogue in Double Take about teen sexuality. So let me state it again. Self-report surveys — you know, the ones where teens tend to UNDER-report their sexual behavior — indicate that nearly half of all 17-year-olds have had vaginal sex. By age 19 that goes up to 75 percent, so it’s not a question of whether a teen will become sexually active, it’s a question of when.

Condoms may help lower the risk of HPV, but that’s limited because it’s transmitted by body contact, not seminal fluid. The only protection your child has against the several strains of HPV that cause cancer is to be vaccinated. That’s why the CDC recommends all children get the three-shot series between the ages of 9 and 12, before sexual activity is initiated.

Yes, regular Pap and HPV tests can prevent most cases of cervical cancer by detecting abnormal cells in the cervix and providing treatment. So, it may seem reasonable to argue for a “wait and treat” approach. However, having sat through hundreds of cases of young women undergoing those procedures, it would never occur to me for a moment to let my children go unvaccinated.

While Gardasil and Cervarix prevent the worst strains of the most common STI known to humankind, getting the vaccine is not about sex. It’s about protecting our children and their future partners.

Gabe: Do a little research about the vaccine. If you can, interview some teens who have had it — if you feel they’re open to sharing. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease. That 12,000 young people between 15 and 24 are infected daily while a vaccine exists is, frankly, outrageous. Parents have the right to be skeptical when it comes to any decision related to their child, but in this case, the facts clearly favor vaccination. ?

As far as the perceived risks, the concerns lie in primarily two camps. The first is that the vaccine will encourage sexual activity. However, American teenagers are surprisingly more discerning than that. They understand there’s more than just one type of STI, and the data shows that they act accordingly. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, among 128,000 girls surveyed, those who had the vaccine were no more or less likely to get pregnant or get any form of STIs, suggesting “Strong evidence that HPV vaccination does not have any significant effect on clinical indicators of sexual behavior among adolescent girls.” Other studies agree. Your child will not become promiscuous due to the vaccine.

The second concern is that the vaccine will harm your child. As with any vaccine, minor complications could follow, but the odds are very low. Gardasil has been approved since 2006. It passed a gauntlet of tests before the FDA released it to consumers. A Danish study of nearly a million girls concluded that Gardasil “showed no consistent evidence for a plausible association” with life-threatening diseases compared to no vaccination.

If you’re among the majority of Kansans who aren’t vaccinating your children, you’re playing the odds. For all the tips that are out there to help prevent cancer, vaccination is the only proven way to reduce the risk of the forms of cancer related to HPV. It may be awkward to think about sex, but it’s a natural part of life. There’s no way to know if your partner is a carrier, even if you wait until after marriage. There’s a reason vaccines are considered a modern medical marvel — they save lives.

— Wes Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP, is author of “I Always Want to Be Where I’m Not: Successful Living with ADD & ADHD.” Learn about his writing and practice at dr-wes.com. Gabe Magee is a Bishop Seabury Academy senior. Send your confidential 200-word question to ask@dr-wes.com. Double Take opinions and advice are not a substitute for psychological services.