She Traveled To Japan For HPV Therapy (feat. Kseniya Sovenko)
Tales of Taboo
Ali Weiss
4.8 • 725 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kseniya Sovenko is a former nationally ranked competitive ballroom dancer, writer, and the founder of NYC Rave Girls. After being diagnosed with HPV, Kseniya discovered she had high-grade cervical dysplasia (CIN3), an advanced type of precancerous cells on her cervix. She was offered only one option for treatment, called a LEEP - or Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure - but read many reports that the procedure offered inconsistent results and bad side effects. So, in the middle of 2020's global lockdown, Kseniya traveled to Japan on a medical Visa to receive Photodynamic Therapy. Her story is equal parts wild, informative, and deeply inspiring. I hope you enjoy learning from her as much as I did.
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Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors around the world. Thank you!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ali Weiss, a performer and writer from downtown New York City. |
| 0:18.5 | Welcome to Tales of Taboo. |
| 0:20.4 | Usually, this show is a collection of |
| 0:22.5 | anonymous confessions, exploring life experiences and worldviews that shamelessly break the rules, |
| 0:29.0 | beat the odds, or are considered socially unacceptable. But every once in a while, I have |
| 0:34.6 | the pleasure of interviewing some fascinating public-facing people who embody |
| 0:39.2 | those qualities and are willing to go on the record about it. |
| 0:43.6 | Kisenia Sovenko is one of those people. |
| 0:46.8 | Kisenia is a nationally ranked competitive dancer, writer, and the co-founder of NYC Rave Girls, |
| 0:53.6 | a TikTok-based community for, you guessed it, |
| 0:56.6 | women who love electronic music culture and want to experience it safely. In the middle of lockdown |
| 1:02.4 | in 2020, Kisenia traveled from the U.S. to Japan to get treatment for high-grade cervical |
| 1:08.4 | dysplasia, which is an advanced pre-cancerous condition caused by HPV. |
| 1:13.6 | The CDC estimates that more than 42 million Americans have HPV, and over 36,000 people per year are diagnosed with a cancer caused by the virus. |
| 1:24.6 | And yet, it remains a highly stigmatized and hush-hush-h-S-TI. |
| 1:29.3 | The treatment that's offered in the U.S. is incredibly invasive and not guaranteed effective. |
| 1:35.3 | Kisenia was super open about her journey to Japan for treatment on social media, |
| 1:40.3 | and it was an honor to dive even deeper into it with her four years later in the studio. |
| 1:46.7 | I hope our conversation fascinates you as much as it did me, but in particular, I hope it resonates |
| 1:53.0 | with the women struggling with HPV, STI shame as a whole, or any sort of reproductive issue |
| 1:59.5 | in which they do not feel seen and properly taken |
| 2:02.9 | care of. I think all of my pre-COVID memories with you are in clubs, which is a really, |
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