A Matter of Perspective

I saw a Sun headline on the Tube today. I'm not proud of it; but Sun headlines are not always possessed of sufficient discretion, politeness or understatement to make them easy to avoid. This one said SEX KILLS, only bigger. A sub-header proclaimed that "making love" (it's a family newspaper) can increase the risk of not one but two kinds of cancer.

I didn't read any further, as the pattern on the seat-cover opposite was crying out for my attention; but I was a little disappointed to learn that the story was apparently this one. Women at risk of, or under treatment for, cervical and womb cancer, are advised to avoid unprotected sex in order to avoid being infused with prostaglandin, a chemical compound which "could fuel the growth of both types of cancer". The medical director of Cancer Research UK says it's "an interesting piece of laboratory research" and that "the likelihood of any unprotected sex affecting the successful outcome of their treatment is considered slight".

So it appears that, before we can calm the crisis of overcrowding resulting from the inexplicable popularity of another kind of uterine growth, a more effective deterrent will have to be found. The current epidemic of pierced, bejewelled and exposed flab, which makes so many women look like random agglomerations of substandard baking dough, might just possibly do the trick; but I doubt it somehow.