Would you let your 13 year old daughter have Gardasil?

Absolutely I would! I don’t want any daughter of mine to get HPV, or cancer from HPV. And teens are sneaky – if they’re anything like me when I was a teen, I was having sex anyway. And what if, Heaven forfend, she’s raped? Of course I would have her protected from this harm any way I can.

Getting the vaccine for HPV is very important for young girls. I doubt this would be a license to have sex (in her mind). Even so, better safe than sorry. I wish I had gotten it

It is not necessary to attend school. You can be exempt from most vaccines..depending on the state.
I would not get it for my daughter.

Gardasil is mandatory in some states I believe, It varies by state. I assume you can still opt out if you want to. Not everyone here is giving their daughters the vaccine, there is contraversy for various reasons. Some parents worry the side effects are not fully known. Worried it has not been around long enough. Some parents just think it is very young, they don’t believe their daughter will be sexually active that young (that to me is annoying). I do not have a daughter and I tend to be very conservative when it comes to new medications and vaccinations, but I would want my daughter to be protected, so I am not 100% sure what I would decide to do.

I’ve read that it is not approved for children that young. The doctor would have to work hard to convince me that it was necessary. See also this question – arguments against using it.

It is not a necessary vaccination for school attendance. I have written much about this in the past.

It is not a vaccination I would give to my daughter (if I had one), and I certainly will not allow my son to have it (which they tried to force boys and girls of YOUNG school age in TX).

This particular vaccine has some rather harmful side effects, and IMHO has not been tested for safety on pubescent girls.

I do get my son all other vaccines…including flu shots. This is one I have a lot of trouble with.

I personally don’t think I would. Just because I’m anti-vaccine. I would prefer to stay away from the side effects and teach safe sex practices instead. Open safe sex practices.

@Clair Condoms and things do not prevent HPV. Most women will get it at some point in their lives.

@Facade I mostly meant communication. Although this doesn’t always work.
I haven’t got it that must be doing something right.

Maybe. I got it and I think its better to have it earlier before any potential exposure. So… Probably. Then again, the potential side effects are there, so… Still, I would probably do it.

Its not mandatory, but its an ok idea.

@Clair HPV is one of those skin-to-skin things.

@YARNLADY is correct. It’s not approved for girls under 15. Also, it is not mandatory anywhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardasil#Political_controversy

I know I say that I wouldn’t..I don’t even have a daughter yet. Maybe in 18 years, if I have a teen girl, and there have been more studies and proof of no adverse long term effects, since the girls who have gotten it now will be older..we’ll see what effects it has on fertility, or other things. I might change my mind. I do not view HPV as a death sentence though, and would talk about it with my daughter (and sons)

I would get my 15 year old vaccinated as soon as I could and now there have been studies of males also getting gardisil to prevent HPV particularly in gay males.

I’d read about this first.

My daughter was diagnosed with cervical cancer at age 17.

I would probably insist that my daughter have the treatment before she was too old.

@PandoraBoxx Wow, full blown cancer? Which stage? Was it caused by HPV?

It was HPV, they caught it early, did a scraping, and she had radiation. Had to have Pap smears done every 3 months for 2 years. Yes, it was HPV.

You can put me in the ‘i’m not ready to accept it as safe’ camp that some of the other ladies on here mentioned.

@PandoraBoxx I’m sorry your daughter had to go through that at such a young age, i hope all turned out well

@PandoraBoxx That sounds scary! I’ve never heard of it metastasizing so quickly, in a young healthy person.
I was diagnosed at 17 with HPV, had two biopsies done (colposcopies) I never needed a LEEP procedure (which is laser removal of the abnormal cells, but I know many girls my age who have had that done. They can also freeze the cells, or do a “cone biopsy” which is a large biopsy of the cervix.
Many people mistake dysplasia with actual cervical cancer. I remember being diagnosed and they made it seem like I had cancer and I was devastated. My mother took me for a second opinion and it completely eased my mind. I did need paps quite often, but I’ve had no abnormal paps for a while now.

@casheroo I had to go through that as well. Luckily all turned out okay. I just hope that it stays okay. One reason to promote regular paps!

No no no.
My Mom is a Nurse. They asked us about it when I was like.. 17. She said that she doesn’t trust a lot of drugs that haven’t been out for a while. ( I actually had a bad reaction to some IBS medication that gave me a slight heart murmur now. It was recalled shortly after. )

@casheroo Yea, I was pretty upset when my gyno said I had “mild dysplasia.” Some don’t explain things well enough for their patients. I should get that checked. It’s been over a year…

@Facade , most women will get it? I’ve had a couple or more partners in my past and never heard of this until a few years ago. and i’m a nurse. Am I just that naive??

@faye Pretty much every OB nurse I’ve talked to said the same thing that @Facade said. Even the one I went to yesterday. Also many many women have it and don’t know it because they don’t get regular paps.

@faye I’ve had ONE partner, and I have it. Statistics are statistics. Consider yourself fortunate.

Do you suppose it wasn’t around so much when I was…? and my daughter wanted it but the doctor said she was too old-23. and I worh on a palliative unit- question just doesn’t come up much so, yeah, i am that naive.

@Facade same here

@YARNLADY and @casheroo I don’t see age ranges for Gardasil on the wikipedia article you referenced but it is FDA approved for females between the ages of 9 and 26yo. Wikipedia is frequently not the best source for accurate health information. The CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a good place to look for up-to-date and accurate information on everything from STI’s to vaccines, ADHD and bioterrorism. Here is a link to FAQs on the HPV vaccine and current information on adverse reactions to Gardasil.

For myself, I’m a women’s healthcare nurse practitioner – I perform multiple pap smears a day and do a lot of counseling to my patients on cervical HPV, cancer and the vaccine. My 19yo daughter has been vaccinated.

@MagsRags I found my information on other websites. I didn’t reference the wikipedia article, but it states very clearly “Dr. Diane Harper stated that in countries where Pap smear screening is common, it will take vaccination of a large proportion of women in order to further reduce cervical cancer rates. She also stated that no efficacy trials for children under 15 have been performed”

My niece has HPV and wishes she could have had the vaccine.

My daughter got the vaccination. It was a tough decision and one that wasn’t made lightly. It wasn’t like we were trying to decide about the color of eyeliner. She’s going to be 18. (amazing -since I’m only 29!) She got it when she was 16. I had her receive it hoping to protect her from one more thing in this big, bad world before she takes flight on her own.

As you know I am careful about vaccines, what I would want to know is if the statistics are much different than other vaccines. Some of you stated there have been bad side effects, but are you aware of some of the bad side effects from other vaccines? The reason I ask is because I hear people say things like, “did you see that commercial and all of the side effects associated with the medication? Why would anyone take that?” But, if you read the PDR most drugs have side effects, a lot of them very similar side effects, it’s just those other drugs aren’t advertising. I look up every drug I take.

I have never done much research regarding most vaccines, because I am vaccinated so to speak, being 40, and I don’t have children. But my mom worked for FDA in vaccinations (she did administartive work, she is not a medical professional), and when I told her they were checking my rubella titer she said, “do not let them give you that shot as an adult.” Because she saw the VAERS (adverse reaction) forms come in, very under-reported in our estimation.. It was a non issue because my titer was still high. My mom gave me all of the childhood vaccines that were available when I was young. My mother also does not take the flu vaccine.

I have 9 years to make that decision. We should know more by then, but as things stand, I’d rather she have a vaccine than not. I’m old enough to remember kids with polio.

Just to clarify my statement above, I am not saying don’t take anything, I am saying you might be afraid of a particular vaccination or a medication because of media coverage, but not even realize the risks are simply very similar to other medications you are willing to take, and probably not much risk at all.

No….......I would not.

The long term ramifications of this vaccine have not been studied enough. Here in the UK girls have gotten very ill.

No.

@DarlingRhadamanthus – can you elaborate on how they have gotten very ill? I would be interested in knowing if it was after the vaccine was administered (as a direct result of the vaccine within a day to a week after), or months later and they think it was from the vaccine. Thanks!

@autumn43 having HPV does not mean your niece cannot be vaccinated with Gardasil and does not mean she would get no benefit from it, although I have had patients who have been told something similar by their GPs.

Gardasil cover 4 HPV strains, two high risk types that are present in about 70% of cervical cancers and two low risk types that cause 80–90% of external genital warts aka condyloma. Having been infected with one HPV strain does not mean that she has been exposed to all 4. Gardasil cannot protect against a strain that you’ve already been infected with but it won’t do any harm.

@YARNLADY I do agree that Gardasil witll have a better cost/benefit ratio in third world countries where women don’t have easy access to regualr Pap screening with followup. I think that’s true about many aspects of healthcare we here in the US take for granted. HPV infections are certainly just as rampant here as anywhere else in the world.

@MagsRags – thanks, but unfortunately, she is too old for the vaccine. It was just one of the things I took into consideration when I was making the decision for my daughter to get vaccinated.

@autumn43 there is no such thing as too old. Who is too old?

There is only a certain window of age in which the vaccine is effective. I assume after that window is the definition for “too old.”

@JLeslie – the target group ends at age 26. She’s older than that. Could she get it still? probably. But she definitely isn’t in the age group the vaccine was being targeted to.

@autumn43 and @laureth they theorize that younger teens have more responsive immune systems and will probably end up with better overall protection.

But the main reason the upper limit of the target group is 26yo is that that’s the upper limit of the age group they used to do the original research that showed benefit. So that’s the upper limit approved by the FDA, and so that’s the upper limit that health insurance companies will provide coverage for.

It does make practical sense in that the older you are, the more partners you’re likely to have had. More partners mean more potential to have already been exposed to the HPV types the vaccine is trying to protect you against. It won’t do you any harm, but it becomes gradually less likely to do you as much good. Plus, over 26, you’ll be paying full price out of pocket about $125 per shot.

@MagsRags – exactly.

@autumn43 If she has had little sexual contact and will be having sex with new people she is the same as a 15 year old sexually. I don’t know her specific situation. I would guess the recommendation is to get ahead of any sexual contact, and the denial some parents are in.

I really don’t know about my niece’s sex life. I can only imagine that after what she has been through, and being old enough to ask the right questions of her GYN, she will make the right choices for her. She’s 31. I doubt my sister is in denial at this point.

Having already experienced the scare of pre-cancerous cells on my cervix, and having had the 3-step vaccine to guard against other strains of HPV, I recommend it highly. There are no real side effects for the most part (and I’m allergic to a slew of different ‘scrips), and she won’t regret you did this for her later. Do it.

You guys do know that you can get HPV from other transfer ways than sex, right? Sharing towels at the pool and stuff like that can transfer the virus from person to person without sex being involved. It sucks and its not as common, but its been known to happen.

My mother is a nurse and she had me have this vaccination when I was 13 or 14. I was administered the vaccination within the first few months of it being available. The only side effect I had was an achy arm where it was injected, which I usually get with shots anyway. Other than that, I have experienced nothing from it.. other than being worry free about HPV.

@sarahjane90 it only prevents a few strains of HPV. Several of the most worrisome strains, but there are types of HPV not covered by the vaccine that are still considered very risky for cancer.