I have repeatedly urged my daughter to go get the "cervical cancer vaccine".

However, she has refused to go, saying she was busy.

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Well, it's obvious from the side that she is actually busy -- I also have a science background, and I understand the intense workload in the sciences.

However, observing how busy she have been with reports, experiments, and productions since her first year of college, even I feel like I'm losing my mind.

-- Are all universities (science courses) like this these days?

I think it was in my third year of the seminar (instrumental research) that I really started to work hard.

Well, I can't remember any time during my college years that I can think of as "free time" either.

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However, I think

"Can 'busy' be a reason to vaccinate against a cancer that kills 3,000 women a year?"

To be honest, I'm frustrated with my daughter's lack of awareness, but I can say that I've given her more than enough warnings as a parent, so I won't say anything more.

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And while doing that, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to offer the opportunity to get the "cervical cancer vaccine" for free on the 23rd of this month.

The conditions are,

- Only for women aged 16-24 (born between 1997 and 2005)

- Vaccination period is only for 3 years from April 2022.

This eliminates the 50,000 yen that the Ebata family will have to pay -- and as for me, I'm not feeling so lucky.

If my daughter insists that she will be vaccinated by April 2022, I (the Ebata family) will pay the money (50,000 yen) (seriously).

I believe that the risk for 3 months is worth 50,000 yen.

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Cervical cancer is caused by sexual intercourse (sex).

It is estimated that more than half of all women who have ever had sex will become infected in their lifetime (50%).

Ten percent of them are infected (5%), and some of them progress to "cervical cancer".

Specifically, the following people are currently considered to be at risk of developing cervical cancer.

- Fecundity

- Smokers

- People taking oral contraceptives (pills)

- Women who have many sexual partners.

- Women with younger age at first sexual intercourse

- Women with weakened immune systems

In an absolute sense, the only people who don't need to get this vaccine are women who have decided to 'not have sex for the rest of their lives'.

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The trouble is that the most appropriate age for this "cervical cancer vaccine" is before they start having sexual intercourse, and the current free vaccination period is "6th grade to 1st grade of high school.

This means that parents and teachers have to explain to the girls about "sex" as a prerequisite for vaccination.

I think we should talk more frankly about sex at school and at home -- no matter how embarrassing or painful it may be.

It is the "lives of the girls" that are being weighed in the balance by the adults who hesitate to do "it".