My daughter is 13 years old. She already took her first gardisil shot in the beginning of August 2007. But, I've seen recently on Yahoo News that there are many side effects. Should I still allow her to take her next two shots? Since she's only taken one, and stops taking the shots, will anything happen?
Also, I've heard that these shots only protect/work for a few years. Since my daughter is only 13, does she have to take the gardisil shot again after a few years? Do you think it is too early for my daughter to take the shot? Can I wait until she's not a virgin/had sex and take it?
Thanks!
2007-10-23 14:47:25 · 8 answers · asked by =] 1 in Health ➔ Women's Health
I think that it's tough to know a lot about Gardasil right now because it's still so new. I did not experience any side effects other than some arm pain after the shots. (I'm quite a bit older than your daughter, though!) What are the specific side effects that you are worried about?
I have not ever heard that the shots have a limited time period of effectiveness. I think that this comes from the fact that when studies were done on the effectiveness of Gardasil, they could only follow the study subjects for a period of a few years -- if they waited to follow the subjects for their entire lifetimes, the vaccine would not have been released for another 40-50 years! I think that only time will tell whether or not the vaccine does indeed remain effective throughout a woman's lifetime. (Although the vaccine manufacturers do claim that the vaccine will prevent the acquisition of particular strains of HPV for the long-term.)
I recommend talking to your daughter's doctor if you have concerns about giving her the rest of the shots. It is important to remember that she will probably receive minimal protection (if any) from just one shot, so you should not consider her vaccinated.
Here's an interesting article about the HPV vaccine from March 2007 that you might be interested in reading:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070326/houppert
A quote from the article:
"Almost all the major health organizations (American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Institute for Vaccine Safety, the CDC, etc.), whatever they think about the aggressive push to require the vaccine immediately, are strongly recommending that girls be inoculated and are confident the vaccine poses no dangers. "This is a remarkably safe vaccine," says Dr. Neal Halsey, a professor in the department of International Health and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins's Bloomberg School of Public Health, director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety and chair of the vaccine group at the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "There is no evidence of any increased risk of serious adverse events.""
Hope that helps. If I find any other interesting information, I'll try to re-post.
***
Also, an update: I have many friends who are in their mid-20s who are already sexually active who have received the Gardasil shot. Basically, my understanding is that if you already have HPV, the shot will have no effect, but if you don't already have one of the strains that the vaccine prevents, it will still have a protective effect.
2007-10-23 15:02:16 · answer #1 · answered by pub_health 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
no definately don't get the rest of the shots...why would you want to protect her from getting CANCER!!! good grief are you an ignoramous??? 4000 women in the USA DIE every year from cervical cancer!!! It's like not getting your kid vaccinated for polio...I can tell you from experience...cervical cancer will cause you to be infertile!!! they would have to remove her uterus, ovaries tubes and lymph glands....sugically and then have radiation and chemo therapy....geez a sore arm doesn't seem THAT bad....Here are the facts: it's a safe and effective vaccine...it has 5 years of data so far that says it's effective for at least that long. All women ...no matter if you have had HPV, should be vaccinated...remember there are over 100 species of HPV and the likelihood you have all 4 types the vaccine covers is extremely unlikely. The most robust immune response to the vaccine is in the 12-15 year olds...that means the vaccine is highly effective then at producing antibodies.
I believe in vaccines, I think they have prevented untold suffering...and I believe in this one. I have seen the results of HPV infection, most women do not get cervical cancer from thier HPV infection. I am a womens health nurse practitioner and I do colposcopy, cryosurgery and LEEP procedures...I honestly can appreciate that you are concerned with your daughters safety....really...I have 2 children....and I have stood behind my beliefs...MY daughter has started the vaccine. I can tell you that telling someone they have invasive cervical cancer is horrible....it means the woman will be fighting for her very life...I don't want that to be MY daughter...knowing I could have taken steps to prevent it for her BEFORE she had a chance to be exposed. I'm sorry I got a little heated up....but I feel passionate about preventing this awful scourge from taking anymore of our sweet children...please listen to the bright young person above who has taken the time to research the facts...you research the facts too. It will NOT cause your daughter to be infertile...it will give her a chance to have children and watch them grow-up and maybe see her grandchildren too!
2007-10-23 16:04:14 · answer #2 · answered by Jean M 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I personally would never get the vaccine. It hasn't been proven how long it lasts, there are side effects and they don't know if it will effect fertility or not. In a nutshell, get this vaccine at your own risk. If I were you I wouldn't give my daughter the next two shots. There are a lot of people pushing for the vaccine around my area; especially for college kids. However, no one bothered to tell me about side effects. They just pushed me to get it. I decided not to after researching it on my own. Even the gardasil website has warnings about how it hasn't been tested enough.
2007-10-23 15:14:34 · answer #3 · answered by Rockit 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The side affects may not be worth it but the shots themselves are rolling the dice. There are many forms of cervical cancer that are caused by the human papilloma virus. Just because someone contracts the human papilloma virus does not mean they will get cervical cancer. The shots effectiveness is only good for a short amount of time and the protection at her age is pointless. You should not be giving her the shots at the age of 13.
Also, I believe it should be your 13 year old's decision to get the shots. She is the one that has to deal with the sideaffects and she is the one that has to go through it. I'm not going to tell anyone how to parent but just think of their rights over their own life.
I think a better way of going about this is teaching her how to look out for herself. I had all my girlfriends go through tests before we had unprotected sex. My wife currently thanked me for it because it kept me from getting the human papilloma virus and possibly spreading it to her. Give your daughter a little education on preventative measures. That's my advice. Hope this helps, stay healthy.
2007-10-23 14:58:16 · answer #4 · answered by napervillecentral 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋
you're fairly intelligent to attain that new pictures are in no way a stable concept to have till they have been around for a minimum of various years....extraordinarily while they are actually not even required....it is going to be in basic terms nice which you probably did not bypass returned for yet another, yet if you consider which you probably did get the 1st one, it does not make it any worse to get something, so you might besides. I thoroughly understand what you're saying nonetheless, and that i certainly refused to get it while my rfile tried to communicate me into it.
2016-10-07 12:09:40 · answer #5 · answered by gonzalescordova 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't let her continue the shots! From the information I've seen, I don't think any female should get the shot!! I think you should allow her once she's older to review the facts and determine if she wants it or not... Have seen info suggesting that it leads to infertillity.... Just my thoughts!
2007-10-23 15:18:35 · answer #6 · answered by ~Katie~ 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I personally would not get this shot nor let any of my children get it.
It is a new vaccine that we do not have any long term studies done. We don't know its long term effects.
Not only that, but in the commercial it also states that it may NOT prevent against the four forms (out of very many) of cervical cancer it says it prevents.
2007-10-23 14:51:20 · answer #7 · answered by Terri 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
They only tested those shots for effectiveness and side effects about 1 to 3 years. .3 years isn't a long time. To top it off only some of those tested were the ones tested for 3 years. Umm...I'd say it's really more of a guessing game as to the side effects later on. I've even seen sites where INFETILITY has been a common side effect from getting the shot.
All you need to do is be smart about your sexual practices really...and use protection everytime...protection meaning condom they are they only one that can prevent you from getting it...it's is far from fool proof though.
I wouldn't get that shot even if it was manditory untill they tested it out more...they don't even know what kind of side effects it could have many years later...as it hasn't been tested that long....no thanx.
NEW DETAILS...
I have HPV...the strain that I will have to live with for the rest of my life...the strain that causes CERVICAL CANCER...I have had it for about 6 years now... All you have to do to properly insure yourself from it not turning into cancer is this...get pap smears every 6 months...(to catch abnormal cell growth in plenty of time...you can do every year...but I'm sort of paranoid...a year is plenty of time too) then if they find abnormal cell growth...get a biopsy done of the cells...see if they are precancerous...99 times out of 100 they will be for the strain I have..not every strain is so difinitive...can be many things with the other strains...then if it is precancerous cells growing...choose how to treat... the one time I had to treat I got my cervix crogenically frozen...took 30 mins...then went home same day...applied cream so it could heal properly..done.
Now saying that...I still wouldn't get the shot....if you get pap smears as needed...then you always catch it in time...they don't grow that fast...there is still time...you could let the precancerous cells grow for up to a 5 years without doing something...(one of the doctors just told me it could be a number of things)...didn't go back and get anything done for 5 years..still had time to treat..tested out...wouldn't try it out again though...I was 14 too young to know what could happen..dumb teenager. Anyway point being...yes cervical cancer can cause inferitilty...you have to have cancer though for it to do that...not just HPV...the HPV makes cancerous cells grow.. The actual rate of it turning in to cancer takes a good while (yearS) SO with regular paps and screaning..and taking good precausions when having sex...it's so unlikely..almost rare for it to turn into cancer...the risk of becoming infertile..having your uterus removed isn't even much worth mentioning...with regular up to date treatment that is............how rare is it that you might become infirtile from that unnessecary shot dear? Think about the pros verus the cons...the side effects of the shot and all.
I can honestly say..if I knew I was going to get this..I still wouldn't pick the shot...I'd just of had safer sex.... I can still have children. Don't even need a C-cection either..I don't have warts though...just cancer cells.
2007-10-23 15:46:10 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋