HPV Vaccine

[Christdefinesme]

So, I have 2 girls "of age" and am not giving them the vaccine.
What about you?
I found this article today:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/03/07/hfh.gardasil.parents/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

And I just read the one Leanna posted back in October (?), and I'm way more scared of the vaccine's possible side effects than I am of the possiblity of my girls getting this one form of cancer.
And, I have a new doctor, and she supports me . (I really love my new doctor)

We went to the Urgent Care a few months ago with my 14 yr old, regarding possible strep, and the female doc there guilted me thoroughly for saying we aren't interested in this vaccine at this point.

I see nothing wrong with allowing my daugher to make her own decision several years from now about whether she wants to be vaccinated with this or not!

 

[jgonz]

No, we're not doing this shot either. Too many unknowns.

 

[beachbum2]

No.

 

[JulySheMustFly]

Not gonna happen with my girls.

You know what bugs me the most about this vax? Their commercials are targeted toward the girls. My 6 year old asked me if she was going to get that?! What the

 

[CarrieAg93]

I don't have any girls, but I don't think I'd have them take it if I did.

 

[seamonster]

Not unless they research it and decide they want it.

I'm actually working on a research paper about this vaccine right now and am surprised at my findings and how little protection it actually offers.

 

[Leanna]

I'm lucky that I have another 10 years before it would be time for my daughter to get this vaccine.... so maybe they will perfect it, or maybe they will trash it, or best yet maybe my daughter won't need it because she chooses monogamy with another man who has chosen the same.

 

[gracepaints]

No daughters yet, but this is like the Hep B vax. If my adult or approaching adult age children feel they need and/or want it, fine. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.

 

[charligirl]

I would not let DD have it at that age. I actually had HPV virus and have had pre-cancerous cells lasered. I was horrified when they told me that it was due to hpv which is sexually transmitted. NOONE ever told us about it, all they talked about was aids and pregnancy - even a couple of years ago when I talked to the sex ed charities not one of them rasied it as a concern, yet millions of people have HPV. Knowing what I know now I would get tested before marriage.

Giving it to school girls is like giving them licence to have sex in my opinion, teaching them younger and younger about sex and 'safe' sex is actually pushing up the teen pregnancy/abortion rate, not lowering it - making them interested a far too young an age Statistic show that teaching abstinance until marriage is far more effective.

 

[Christdefinesme]

I'm lucky that I have another 10 years before it would be time for my daughter to get this vaccine.... so maybe they will perfect it, or maybe they will trash it, or best yet maybe my daughter won't need it because she chooses monogamy with another man who has chosen the same.

Yeeesss, exactly. I can't tell you how many doctors, though, look at you like you are "deceived" or don't believe you when you suggest that this is a possiblity (monogomy and/or saving themselves) for your daughers. Ugh!
Sad, sad, sad.

 

[GolfingMom]

NO daughters but if I had daughters they would NOT get it

 

[Leanna]

You can teach girls to "save themselves," and that's all well and good, but that doesn't really do much to protect them if they change their mind, have different ideals, or if their partner did not "save themselves." Not to mention, studies have shown that HPV can pass from mother to child in birth, meaning one can get HPV from means other than sex.

And cancer seems like a pretty steep punishment for your kid if they have different ideals than you think they should.

People have died from this vaccine. That's a good reason not to get it. New vaccines are dangerous risks.

 

[Leanna]

I "get" that you have different beliefs, but we're just going to have to agree to disagree.

It's one of the only vaccines out there that doesn't contain mercury or thimerosal (the two main sources of allergies in vaccines, though both found in shots... Like the flu shot),

The two main sources of allergies? Are you for real? I don't think so.

If you get your kids their regular shots, it has some combination of all of the above, all of which pose a higher risk of complications than what's in the HPV shot.

I don't agree with a higher risk of complications than others because it depends on the shot, but I agree the other vaccines too are risky.

There is nothing in the HPV shot that can kill anybody, or develop into something that can kill somebody. Which would be why in the 20 year history of the shot, nobody has died from it.

No there is not a 20 year history with this shot.

 

[faithmom]

I have very mixed emotions. We were encouraged to have both of our daughters vaccinated at their sports physicals last summer (they are age 10 and 9). I declined and received the little "promo" speach I know every parent in this town has heard from every single doctor when they last had their tween daughters in for a physical. (just so you know that everyone gets the
"talk").

I am glad the vaccine is out there, it is a terrible disease, and if there were vaccines to prevent breast cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer like this on can prevent cervical cancer, I'd be happy about those as well...even if we someday discover all of those are somehow sexually related. (Science has a long long history of "AHA! oh ....duh! moments, and finding out that cervical cancer is related to venerial warts is one of those. Just like people once didn't know that insanity that seemed to go from one spouse to the other was syphillis....so far back we forget these things....a disease we don't hesitate now to treat with an antibiotic.)

I am raising my daughters to be chaste, and doing all I can to help them value that. But we forget a few scarey words out there....

Rape and Date Rape.
Cheating spouses.
2nd marriages.
...I think there are a few more.

That being said, the problems that have been resulting from too many vaccines, new vaccines and medicines, tainted medicines (read about hepparin in the past week), and vaccines containing mercury (which is just so stupid! It's a heavey metal plain and simple! We filter our city drinking water supplies to bring it to "trace" levels, then shoot it into our bodies. ,We say trace levels won't hurt, even though we are adding them to the trace levels in water, fish and tooth fillings. When you add it up in a tiny growing body, it isn't trace any more. We're really being dumb some days, aren't we?)

So, I choose to wait until I know my daughters are at an age where they are no longer under my watch, have bigger stronger bodies, and unfortunaly when, Lord forbid, someone might take advantage of them. Hopefully they then have one less painful burden to bear from some tragedy like rape or a cheating spouse.

Will I forget, or not be diligent? Na....I'm not wired that way.

IMHO. That's my take.

 

[Christdefinesme]

You can teach girls to "save themselves," and that's all well and good, but that doesn't really do much to protect them if they change their mind, have different ideals, or if their partner did not "save themselves." Not to mention, studies have shown that HPV can pass from mother to child in birth, meaning one can get HPV from means other than sex.

And cancer seems like a pretty steep punishment for your kid if they have different ideals than you think they should.

Surely parents can figure out how to teach that they'd like their kids to not have sex until marriage, but how to also protect themselves in case their partner hasn't made the same choice, or that they'll be loved and protected even if they make the choice that 98% of all of us made... Because 97-98% of people will have sex before their married.

You have a valid point, but my point is simply that this vaccine is effective even when given up to age 22 (something like that), so my girls will have plenty of time 1) for this vaccine to hopefully become safer 2) make their own decisions if they don't choose to live by the values that we have raised them with.
I plan for my girls to be fully informed regarding their choices and decisions regarding their bodies and health by the time they are on their own.
I am not willing to risk their lives NOW for the smaller possibility of maybe preventing something in the future that has a good chance of being caught on a regular pap (and it's said this vaccine is effective for only 5 years, from what I've read). I refuse to be guilted by the big "C" word. And I don't want my girls to be manipulated by it either.

Just to clarify, I respect your position, many feel the same as you do.

To me, this vaccine and the way it's being advertised is a very serious issue.

 

[charligirl]

Exerpt from The Daily Telegraph article (leading UK Broadsheet newspaper) full article here: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/field_mar.../hpv_vaccine_info_you_probably_don_t_know.htm

Now, a few points to make regarding Gardasil. It is not proven safe. It is not 100% percent effective. The average age of contracting cervical cancer is 50. Gardasils' effectiveness only lasts for 5 years, yet they are giving it to 12 year olds? Potential side effects include Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Gastroenteritis, Bronchospasm, Pharyngitis. It may actually cause cancer.

 

[faithmom]

Just out of curiosity...if it is a vaccine, and creates immunity against the virus, why isn't it's effectiveness in boys being studied as vigorously...or was it even studied "vigorously" in girls in the first place? Why...like birth control pills, is the focus all on girls? (I always found it amazing that the male hormone levels are far more consistent, yet no great effort has ever been put out there to alter sperm production, we just keep focussing on the female system....with its cyclical rises and falls of hormone levels, for the pill. ) Why not try to stop the disease in it's tracks from both sides, while preventing cancer at the same time.

That fact has always seemed a bit "fishy" to me. Just like it has with birth control via hormone treatment.

 

[Christdefinesme]

Exerpt from The Daily Telegraph article (leading UK Broadsheet newspaper) full article here: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/field_mar.../hpv_vaccine_info_you_probably_don_t_know.htm

Now, a few points to make regarding Gardasil. It is not proven safe. It is not 100% percent effective. The average age of contracting cervical cancer is 50. Gardasils' effectiveness only lasts for 5 years, yet they are giving it to 12 year olds? Potential side effects include Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Gastroenteritis, Bronchospasm, Pharyngitis. It may actually cause cancer.

Wow, interesting article!

 

[seamonster]

Because 97-98% of people will have sex before their married.

Source, please?

 

[seamonster]

My reason for not getting my child the shot is not because I think she may not have sex, but because it offers so little protection. There are over 100 strands of HPV, yet the vaccine is only designed to protect against 2 strands that cause cancer and 2 strands that cause genital warts (according to the Gardasil brochure, although CNN has reported it may protect against up to 14 strands). 20 million people in the US have HPV according to the Gardasil website, and it's easily preventable by making good, educated, logical sexual decisions. If my child does decide she wants to have sexual contact with people whose history she doesn't know, then sure, I'll get her the shot, but only if she does her own research and decides that the benefits outweigh the risks.