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I have a 10 yo girl and a 15 yo boy. I'm on the fence about whether or not to vaccinate them w/ this. I want them inoculated, but I'm not sure about the long term affects since it's so new... Any opinions?
Not really interested in the opinions of those who don't believe in vaccines, since that's not what I'm asking about it.
My wife and I have fully vaccinated our kids to schedule (slightly modified by our pediatrician, but really just to spread the shots out a little bit). We chose not to give our kids the H1N1 vaccine and they are still a good amount of time off from being in the gardisil camp, but we wouldn't give it to them now if they were.
My wife was a manager in a doctors office until she became a SAHM. She worked for a pretty good Internal Medicine doctor. His general advice was not to take a vaccine until it had been on the market for at least 18 months and for things that are ultimately preventable like HPV, to give it at least a few years before considering it. My wife and the doctor she worked for are by no means experts, but it makes sense to me.
I'm not against giving it to my kids, but even if they were old enough now to get it, I would still wait a little while longer to see what happens. This is especially important in people who have underlying conditions like asthma, certain allergies, heart defects, etc. When they test, they don't test it for everyone with every combo and the time you wait while it is in the general population will give you time to see if there are reactions within those subgroups.
When I took my teens in for meningitis (sp?) vaccines last fall, the Dr. asked about getting Gardasil for my daughter. I asked for information and then did some research before I agreed to it. While most people think that Gardasil is relatively new... the main clinical studies on it were done 15 years ago. It has been around for some time... many girls who received the first doses have gone on to have healthy pregnancies / babies (this was one of my concerns... how would my daughter feel later in life if an innoculation I got for her turned out to be harmful when she tried to have children).
The things that convinced me to get Gardasil for my daughter:
1. My niece was diagnosed with HPV just after she delivered her daughter... that baby is 18 months old and is severely visually handicapped because the virus settled in her eyes before anyone realized there was any danger.
2. I had already gotten the "new" Varicella (chicken pox) vaccine for my children years ago... and there have been no adverse affects (and no cases of chicken pox either)
3. I want what's best for my kids, and having one less worry (getting cancer later in life) was a fine idea.
My advice... talk to your doctor, do some research online, talk to your daughter... and then do what you feel is right and what you are comfortable with.
We vaccinate selectively and on a delayed schedule. There is no way my kids will have this vaccine. It's too new, too many girls have had reactions, HPV is preventable by other means, and even if they do catch HPV, most of the time it clears up on its own. Not worth the risk, IMO.
I have 2 8 year old daughters and I will not be vacinating them with gardisil. While it does protect from some cervical cancers, not all of them are covered. Added to that I have personal experience with the side effects.
We have dear neighbors, one of whom is a Doctor and the other a nurse. To be proactive they got the shots for their 16 year old daughter who was not yet sexual active but on the brink. The poor girl suffered all the possible side effects and some more severely than others. She had to start school late and had trouble catching up because of her medical issues.
The dr. father is full of guilt. He said d"I should have given it more personal research myself or at the very least waited till more studies had been done."
Together this couple did a great deal of research and gave it to their family doctor. She in turn agreed not enough was known about it and stopped giving the shots in her practice.
I'm a realist and I don't think my little darlings will remain virgins till they get married (and even if they did their partners may be carriers) but I am already talking about puberty, birthcontrol and possitive body image to help them be aware of the dangers of unprotected sex. I will continue to have open discussions with them and until this rx has been proven to be safe I will not get these shots for my daughters.
I had both of my daughter's vaccinated. I have a 17 yo and 13 yo. This isn't just for girls, boys can get HPV too. I decided I wanted it to be stopped HERE. I don't want it transmitted to/from my girls in any way. I don't know all the in's and out's but I spoke to the pediatrician and my OB/GYN about it. They both said it was a good idea but to wait till they were 12. So I did and so far there haven't been any problems.
No Gardasil here. I have an 18 y.o. daughter and a 13 y.o. son. Nope. Never. We also don't do the flu vaccines. Now they've had all the other vaccinations but that's just not been around for a while.
I think it's vaccine overload. I never needed it. Why should they?
HPV, itself, isn't a big deal. It's what HPV causes that's the big deal. I was lucky - they caught the cervical cancer in time and I was able to avoid a hysterectomy, chemo, and radiation. They went in with a laser and I only had to lose 1/3 of my cervix, and some of the mucous membranes.
I -never- experienced venereal warts (which is most often caused by HPV). I never passed it to anyone, I was a carrier. I still am. But since the cancer it's been dormant.
It won't ever "clear itself up." You either have HPV, or you don't. Many of its symptoms will clear themselves up, but if you have HPV, you will have HPV for the rest of your life. It will either cause cancer and/or warts and/or worse, or it won't. You don't always know that you're contracting it, because it isn't exclusively a STD caused by someone showing outward symptoms. Condoms don't eliminate the risk, because often the virus is spread outside the genitals, not on/in them.
Another thing to consider - if you have HPV you can't donate blood. Even if it's dormant. Not a big deal really but if you have a sibling with leukemia, in need of a blood transfusion, you can't donate.
Another thing to consider - if you have HPV you can't donate blood. Even if it's dormant. Not a big deal really but if you have a sibling with leukemia, in need of a blood transfusion, you can't donate.
That is surprising to me, since I've read, in various sources, that between 50 - 80 % of females (and likely as many, or more males, but they're not identified unless they have warts, and only a subset do) have at least one of the "STD type" strains by the time they're 50. It seems to me that anyone who has ever had sex with more than one person, or whose partner has, in their entire lifetime, condom or nor, is unlikely NOT to get an HPV strain. It's then what an individual's body does with the virus that determines things like cancer, etc.
So who all is giving blood?
(By the way, I'm not arguing that you're not correct. I'm very curious to research this right now. I'm just... surprised!)
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