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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to withdraw consent for hpv vaccine

281 replies

Ilovehamabeads · 08/11/2017 21:15

Signed the forms ages ago for DD to have the HPV vaccine tomorrow. I didn't really read up on it, other than the NHS info leaflet she bought home with the consent form.
Tomorrow is the day she's due to have the first jab. I'm now regretting signing that form so readily, having read more about it. I know in my head that the stories I've read are just the very, very few that went wrong out of millions. But, at the same time I'm thinking what if..
Would it be totally ridiculous to change my mind at the last minute? I think I just need a few people to tell me I'm an idiot for believing the evidence of a few, over the evidence of many!

OP posts:
CoteDAzur · 09/11/2017 12:13

No doubt someone will correct me if this is wrong, but my understanding is that HPV washes away like any other virus unless it takes hold in a vulnerable area such as the cervix or inside the mouth.

I don't think it would live on a girl's labia for 16 years, just like the gastroenteritis virus you cough on your hand would not live there for years.

It's not as easy to catch as the common cold. It has to be brought by touch to a susceptible area of the body, and even then infection can't be assumed. There is apparently only a 20% chance that infected partner will transmit it to non-infected partner in 6 months of hetero sex.

hjublen · 09/11/2017 12:15

OP I was the same and didn’t let my dds have it at school as 14 seemed very young but I let them decide themselves when they were older. (I told them condoms prevent HPV and pregnancy if they were going to be sexually active). Youngest dd has just had the vaccinations from her GP at 17. It should be given before they start having sex so does depend on the individual. It costs £400 once they reach 18. I’d probably let a daughter have it at school now as it’s been around a few years and is statistically safe.

hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea · 09/11/2017 12:16

I'm sorry that you took my comment about your dad likely having cheated to cause your mum's cervical cancer as such an insult. It wasn't a character judgement

What a revolting non-apology. Some people here have no fucking shame at all do they?

QuackPorridgeBacon · 09/11/2017 12:18

It’s been around long enough now that I wouldn’t mind mine getting it. When it first came out I was at school and at the age I could receive it. My mother refused and I went along with that, because it was so new she didn’t want to risk it. I think at the time young girls were dying from it because it was only tested on adults? Not sure how true that is as I was told that as a child and haven’t looked into it at all as an adult. By the time my two have it I’m sure it will have been researched so much and I imagine if anything is wrong it will be pulled. That’s if my youngest can have it. Is it live at all? (Shows how much I don’t know about it lol)

Another question. Is the HPV cancer connected to HPV warts?

Somerville · 09/11/2017 12:19

Yes Notreally, the attaching of blame to people with cancer is really unpleasant. It happens in all types of cancer diagnosis - my first husband died in his mid thirties and its very upsetting how many people ask me if he was a smoker, or talk about him like he must have been unfit or weak. (None of that true.) I think it must make people feel like the terror of cancer is further away, to other those who have it. "I'll be okay because it only happens to smokers/the obese/people who sleep around." Angry
But the misogyny and judgements around cervical cancer is particularly pernicious and unhelpful, when so many women are victims of sexual assault... and because sex is fun and pleasurable and it is not wrong for women to want to have plenty of it!

Sorry about your mum Flowers

Notreallyarsed · 09/11/2017 12:21

@hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea indeed they don’t.

CoteDAzur · 09/11/2017 12:22

"Is the HPV cancer connected to HPV warts?"

Some HPV strains cause cancer and others cause HPV warts.

Notreallyarsed · 09/11/2017 12:23

@Somerville I’m sorry about your husband, how awful that people judged and made nasty comments, especially during such a difficult time.
Exactly right! The assumptions that women who have cervical cancer are promiscuous or somehow deserve it are horrible and just not true. And even if a woman has had many sexual partners and chooses to engage in as much sex as she can good on her I say it’s still not right to cast aspersions.

Lellochip · 09/11/2017 12:31

What are the thoughts on getting it as an adult? If opportunities for exposure have been less than average, so to speak? Grin

RockinHippy · 09/11/2017 12:31

YANBU. I researched this one a lot after seeing an influx of this age girls parents joining a POTs group I’m a member of, seems it’s triggering POTs in some girls. Mine already has POTs, though mostly reasonably well controlled, but there’s no way in hell will I risk making that worse. Off the record, the nurse agreed too

CoteDAzur · 09/11/2017 12:34

"What are the thoughts on getting it as an adult?"

I asked about this when HPV vaccine first came out and was told that it's not effective if you already have/had the virus, so they won't offer it.

QuackPorridgeBacon · 09/11/2017 12:34

CoteDAzur thanks. Does that mean I can get cancer if I had warts? I’m being thick and could google all this lol

CoteDAzur · 09/11/2017 12:37

"Does that mean I can get cancer if I had warts?"

I'm not a medical specialist, but my understanding is that isn't a significant risk factor. If you had warts, that means you had one or some of the wart-causing strains of HPV. It doesn't mean that you also have a cancer-causing strain, but you might have it so continue having regular smear tests.

hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea · 09/11/2017 12:40

seems it’s triggering POTs in some girls

There is zero evidence for that. Just because people have linked 2 things together there is not necessarily any link.

lettuceWrap · 09/11/2017 12:44

Lellochip, my DH (a GP), is of the opinion that people who have been in long term monogamous relationships who start dating again (after a divorce or bereavement for example), absolutely should consider having HPV vaccine (they might have to go to a private GP a pay to get it), because if previously infected with cancer causing strains, and their body has “cleared” it (which is what usually happens), they could be reinfected and in any case, viruses evolve, the ones someone may have been exposed to 20 or 30 years ago may be quite different to the ones circulating now - and infection rates seem to be higher now anyway, due to different sexual mores...

lettuceWrap · 09/11/2017 12:50

Cote- they won’t offer but you will get it if you ask and are in a high risk group, or you can pay privately.

It IS effective if you are protected against a strain you haven’t got immunity to (either because you’ve never contacted it or because you cleared the virus so long ago that immunity has wained). It’s a different cost-benefit calculation tho, so it would cost more to prevent each cancer that’s prevented.

TalkinBoutWhat · 09/11/2017 12:53

Are you kidding me? If they don't start offering this vaccine to boys, I will have my 2 DSs vaccinated with it privately. Given the number of girls not being vaccinated, I want to do everything I can to protect them.

Why would you want to decline something like this????

RockinHippy · 09/11/2017 12:54

Yet HB

as with all vaccines the side effects risks are only ever fully known when the jab has been fully rolled out for a few years as not everyone reacts in the same way. & if you don’t believe me, go & check out the POTs boards👍🏼

Notreallyarsed · 09/11/2017 13:01

as with all vaccines the side effects risks are only ever fully known when the jab has been fully rolled out for a few years as not everyone reacts in the same way. & if you don’t believe me, go & check out the POTs boards

With respect, they said the same thing about the MMR linking it to autism a few years ago. We all know how that turned out.

lettuceWrap · 09/11/2017 13:03

vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/hpv-vaccine

CoteDAzur · 09/11/2017 13:04

"Cote- they won’t offer but you will get it if you ask and are in a high risk group, or you can pay privately. It IS effective"

That's good to know. Thank you.

QuackPorridgeBacon · 09/11/2017 13:12

Thank you CoteDAzur I will make an appointment with my GP to discuss it further. I haven’t actually had a smear yet, stupidly and really should. I will get an appointment arranged asap.

RockinHippy · 09/11/2017 13:16

With respect, they said the same thing about the MMR linking it to autism a few years ago. We all know how that turned out.

I know & though it’s mostly okay, from experience, the multi jabs like this one do not suit everyone. I’m by no way anti Vax, but I am anti lack of choice with these multi jabs. Some kids are just more vulnerable, mine being one of them.

Same goes with this new jab & it isn’t yet fully tried & tested, not until it’s been fully in use for some time. So it’s just not a risk I will take when it’s pretty much guaranteed to affect her badly, also DDs healthy friend has been ill since this HPV jab, according to DD several of the girls have & they blame the jab. DD chose not to have it after researching herself & I support her in that

Needadvicetoleave · 09/11/2017 13:19

I know a girl who died following the vaccine (in Coventry). I also know several teens who have had some adverse affects from the vaccine - loss of athletic ability etc. I also work with a guy whose DB has vaccine injury from the whooping cough vaccine and another who has narcolepsy as a result of the swine flu vaccine.

I have still had my son vaccinated at every opportunity.

I have HPV, I've had lettz, yearly smears etc. Not too bead for me, it hasn't bothered me. But I'd still give my DD the HPV vaccine.

hotbutteredcrumpetsandtea · 09/11/2017 13:20

if you don’t believe me, go & check out the POTs boards

I don't need to check out anything thank you, as I said, just because they think that is why doesn't mean it is. correlation is not causation.

There are still plenty of people who are utterly convinced the MMR cause autism. They are wrong.