Lauren Fant, 18, gets her third and final HPV vaccine administered by nurse Stephanie Pearson at a doctor's office in Marietta, Ga.

When Vanessa Laven was in college and living just outside of New York City, she went to her family gynecologist to get vaccinated against HPV, the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer (among others).

He told her she didn’t need it because she was a “good girl” from a “good family” and sent her on her way.

“It was totally about sex,” said Laven, now 29, living in Minneapolis with her husband, and, sadly, positive for both HPV and the precancerous cell growth associated with it. “The discussion of the vaccine was tied up with some old-fashioned notion of virtue.”

The recent Disneyland measles outbreak shone a bright spotlight on parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids against harmful diseases because they’re worried about vaccine safety. But when it comes to refusing to vaccinate children again HPV, it’s usually not safety that’s the sticking point -- it’s sex.

Some fear that if their kids are vaccinated, they’ll be more likely to start having sex.