to change my mind and tell the school I don't want dd to have cervical cancer jab?

[lowfatiscrap12]

Yes, I know there's another (very long) thread about vaccines.
I was going to post my question there, but thought it would be lost under twenty odd pages of replies.
Last week I gave dd1 (aged 12) a consent form to have all 3 of her vaccinations for cervical cancer.
Now I should point out that I am very pro-vaccination. All three of my dc's have had, after plenty of research and reading by me, all of their childhood vaccinations. I've read and researched and looked at all the pros and cons and am generally pro vax.
But I've been umming and ahhing over this one.
I've checked and it's Gardasil she'd be having.
I've looked at the reasons for and against it.
I decided last week that the benefits outweighed the negatives, but now I'm wavering slightly.
I'm 39. I didn't have cervical cancer vaccinations at school.
I had safe sex and smear tests.
I've read about some of the side effects of Gardasil and I'm now quite tempted to phone the school and ask them to destroy my consent letter. Or send another letter in. Or just keep dd at home the day they do the HPV jabs.
AIBU?
What does everyone on Mumsnet think about the new HPV vaccine?

Having HPV myself, two colposcopies and CIN1 cells removed recently as a precaution and smears every six months I think it's fantastic that girls more opportunity to prevent this now.

Rhubarb surely that is because you can develop cervical cancer without having had sex? HPV is one cause, as I understand it, but not the only.

Sorry, that was to answer the query about girls being refused smear tests under the age of 25.

It's not true because I was badgered by the NHS to have a smear test when I was under the age of 25 and still a virgin.

I was not in a high risk group either, having no history of cancer in the family, not being overweight, not smoking and not drinking very much.

Mine was due to have it a week or so after a young girl dropped dead after standing in line at school. Tbh, it was quite a new vaccination and upset DD and I at the time. I had always made sure that all vaccinations were up to date but wasn't sure about this one.

Coupled with the fact that DD was young at the time and wasn't sexually active and that it lasted 5 yrs (I might be wrong on this). I didn't give consent and she decided, later on, to get it done at the doctors surgery.

truthaboutgardasil.org/

Sorry forgot to press the link button

I was too old to have the vaccine, and was too young by the time they increased the age limit for smears.

I am still months away until they will agree to give me a smear. I have had symptoms, which they don't quite understand and just keep throwing antibiotics at me even when swabs come back clear. My Mother and Grandmother have both had abnormal smears, both ending up with Hysterectomies and still my doctor refuses to send me for one. All I get told is that they are not allowed due to the PCT trust. I must wait till I am 25.

It is ridiculous. The fact too many women are dying of cervical cancer at 22 years old shows that they need to decrease the age limit.

I wish I was able to have the jab, and I shall be making sure both of my boys do when the time comes, even if I have to go private.

TheRhubarb, I can't remember how long ago it was, but it is only a recent thing that they have increased the age for smears to 25 years old. It is true, due to their reasoning that many women got false results till 25 years as everything is still changing.

Never mind all the right results which have saved lives

Oh please 'Hope' - this old problem of causation/correlation thing again. It is VERY strong in humans - we look for associations and make links all the time. Thanks goodness science is there to set things straight.

I find it odd that parents are consulting with their underage daughters. When I was in Y9, I'm sure I was a know-it-all clever-clogs. I'm NOT sure I would have made the choice to have the vax though as I was so anti-interventionist and hated needles. YOU are the responsible adult to step in at times to make the right choice.

My neighbour naively believes her 16 yo DD would tell her when she was going to get sexually active and have the vax beforehand. Her DD is now 21 and lives away from home...and never had the vax. Apparently still a vigin too [eyes-to-ceiling]

Even if your daughter does use a condom if she was to have lots of sex at an early age before shes properly developed it would cause major damage having sex with an under developed body.

but of course cervical cancer can be for reasons other than that.

I see where you are coming from though, I made sure my DS had all jabs separate instead of the MMR.

I think it's right to discuss this issue with them. Parents who do so are also likely to discuss their sex lives and safe sex with their teens.

Teenagers need to know. They are 12 going on 13. Yes some decisions still need to be made for them but they also need to be treated with some respect and told what the vaccine is for and why they are having it. If they strongly object, their objections need to be listened to and taken on board.

If you listen to your teenagers then a strong line of communication will be opened between you and many problems can be prevented in this way. That's my strong opinion on this.

I am shocked they will not offer smears to young girls.

Shullbit that is disgraceful. In your situation, I think I would have the test privately. It doesn't cost a lot.

Marie Stopes will do it for £75 for the under-25s:
www.mariestopes.org.uk/Womens_services/Cervical_screening/Screening_for_under_25s.aspx

I would think it would be money well-spent to ease your worries.

eurochick, thank you for that link. I have had a lot going on the past month but the symptoms are getting worse over the last week so have been thinking about going elsewhere for one rather than waiting. Will look at their website now

Shullbit, if you have symptoms, you DO NOT need a cervical smear. This is a SCREENING test for asymptomatic people. If someone has symptoms, they need a proper assessment, including examination, swabs, & possibly colposcopy.

As for people concerned about side effects, nothing, nothing, nothing is without risk, but the harm a medicine can do has to be balanced by its benefit. Someone said that 3000+ lives a year in the long run might be saved as a result, so compare that to the 1 significant side effect each year.

Agree, if you have symptoms then you need to be properly examined and the NHS is obliged to provide this kind of care for you.
You are not asking for a smear, you are asking for an examination of your symptoms and a diagnosis.

My DD1 has had the HPV vaccines, but even I admit to a wobble when it came to signing the consent form with her. I was part of the school health HPV vaccination team, and am a practice nurse now doing daily smears!

I don't know if information regarding the HPV jabs vary between areas but in the county where I work we used to do presentations in school prior to each school year programme of vaccination to which parents were invited. Consent forms are sent home with a leaflet about the vaccine which contained lots of information about the vaccine as well as links to websites etc. The vaccination is nothing to do with Education (ie the school) but all to do with School Health (ie the NHS).

Cervical screening is offered to women 25+ routinely; it's not offered to under 25s because the rate of false positives is so high and screening can lead to unnecessary intervention and colposcopy.

If a woman presents to a HCP with concerning symptoms such as bleeding between periods, bleeding after sex, unusual vaginal discharge and pain she may be offered a smear as part of clinical investigations - this is NOT the same as national screening.

Oh ok. I don't know much about it. I just assumed the doctors knew what they were doing until it started getting worse and I spoke to my Mother and Grandmother. Both advised me to demand a smear but the doctor said that until I am 25, there is nothing he can do. Mother, whilst getting concerned and ending up scaring the living daylights out of me with it, suggested to go private and that she would even pay for it if need be so I assumed that was the way it was done.

I don't like searching online, as I find that it ends up scaremongering people but I think it is something I am going to have to do so I can go to the doctors armed and prepared.

Thanks for putting me in the right direction ladies.

My daughter has had the vaccine. I'd rather her be safe(r) than sorry. Its all very well saying "promote safe sex" etc, but I do actually remember being a teenager, and its not always as easy as that, is it? You can talk about it till the cows come home and it won't necessarily make any difference.
Anything that helps guard against any cancer is surely a good thing?

i'm not really up on teh side effect of this vaccine, can anyone enlighten me

I am still just that people are apparently being refused medical treatment on the basis of age.

My sister has had pre-cancerous cells removed at age 19 and again at 21. They then refused to give her another smear until she was 25

She isn't promiscuous so god knows how she got it.

Please remember that the side effects are only potential side effects. The reason scary ones are listed is not because they are common but because the vaccine manufacturer is covering their arse legally. Even everyday drugs can have very rare serious side effects.

-Your DD may not necessarily have safe sex (she may be sexually assaulted) or have regular smears.
-even if she has safe vaginal sex, she is more likely to contract HPV orally and increase risk of oral/throat cancers if she does not use a condom in oral sex. Even if she is sensible would it occur to her that this is a risk of oral sex?
-You only need one partner to give you HPV.
-The vaccine is also targeted at genital warts, which although not life-threatening, are extremely unpleasant.
-I would not take any notice of any anti-vaccine site unless it happened to be run by some top flight immunologists. Which I somehow think is unlikely.

FWIW I have had Gardasil and I was fine apart from a sore arm!

revoltingpeasant they're not.

Screening is often age dependent (think smears and mammograms) but assessment and treatment isn't.

I don't know Shullbit's situation obviously, or what sort of symptoms she's been having, but any GP can order a cervical smear as part of clinical investigations regardless of age. Whether one is indicated or not depends on the clinical presentation and assessment.

what age do they give this vac?

LeBFG. Smoking was once seen as a safe social habit. This info is from a talk in the USA on the history

Now the first published report that tobacco smoking might be linked to lung cancer was 1912, but it was really in 1954 or so that the first epidemiological experimental found that there was a relationship.
And what you have to understand to see why did it take so long, is that as medicine was evolving into its modern form. It takes certain challenges in the early 20th century: it was all about infectious disease. And it was all about penicillin. And it was all about staphylococcus and diphtheria and tetanus. And you had all these bacteria that were being isolated, and there was this thing it?s called Koch?s postulates, and Koch was a German microbiologist, I think. And he came up with this sense that in order to prove something you had to isolate an organism. You had to isolate a cause. You had to be able to transmit it to another person or entity or animal, and it had to cause the same disease, and so there was these series of steps you had to take in order to say, ?Yes, there?s no question -- this bacteria or this process causes this illness.?
The data on tobacco was not that way. It was all sort of circumstantial; it was all ?we see people smoking and we see people with diseases?. But nobody could ever show that if you had rats inhale tobacco smoke it caused lung cancer, or emphysema. You didn?t have that kind of data, and so it was all epidemiologic data, and in the 50s and 60s when the data stuff started coming out.
This was new science, this was a new idea. Are you sure this is because these two things seem to track together? People smoking and people getting lung cancer. Are you sure there a causation or it?s the company it keeps, or it?s caused by other factors we don?t understand? And these were huge questions that were that were raised.

At no point have I said that my friend defiantly had arthritis from her jab, but that it closely followed the jab. When you have been as ill as I have you are very careful about your body and that if your family. That's all I'm saying....