Vaccination against cervical cancer/HPV

[nooshoo]

This vaccination protects against a sexually transmitted virus which can lead to cancer and other problems. Does anyone know why is it recommended as standard for children from 11 years, is it because there is perceived realistic risk of sexual contact occuring from this age?

Oh, that's OK then! It's absolutely fine for that poster's kids to get preventable STIs.

Yes it may be cleared or dormant. I've had smears for decades now and they're always clear. So I assume that means I've cleared it for life. If my immune system was compromised in some way, I guess it could come back. But that would mean I'm very ill...

No I'm not suggesting that. I'm giving facts.

People can choose to vaccinate or not based on FACTS.

And the FACT is that genital warts are horrible, and cancer can be deadly. And the HPV vaccine significantly reduces the risk of terrible, lethal diseases as well as treatable ones.

@nooshoo I am not from the UK I'm in Ireland and it's given in the first year of secondary school, which is generally age 12-13. So it doesn't specifically have to be given at 11 years old. Is 11 years old the start of secondary school in the UK? It's easier to just pick one year group to give it to and leave it at that so no one gets missed. Is that the thought behind it maybe?

You can clear genital warts? What does the even mean?

No, they want to vaccinate even before a minority will become sexually active in order to eliminate risk as far as possible to everyone.

Most certainly true. And it's also true that a very tiny fraction of people are injured. So everyone has a choice and it's their choice to decide.

Not to be negative, but I'm not very sure of this, given that when I'd been celibate for ten years and stuck off the list by my GP, a gynaecologist still wanted me to go for smears. She obviously thought that if I'd once had HPV, it could come back again even with no new partners.

Or try an ugly ring and an after-school promise club. That seems to work well in America.

Wish we had when we was younger !

Yes gardasil

True. And the MMR is given to babies. OP do you think babies are having sex?

Most people I knew started having sex at university

That group of people is filtered to 1- people who know you and 2- subset people who went to university. This is not representative of wider society.

DBro is a teacher, Head of Year in a high school. This year there are "only" 3 girls pregnant in Y11 and 1 in Y10.

You realise that people do have sex younger than university age? You can do all the public health initiatives you want but there's no stopping a determined, horny teenager. Although having said that, a girl in my year came to pick up her exam results with her new born twins... that was a bit of an eye opener/contraceptive for my cohort!

Apart from the teenagers choosing to have sex, there are those in abusive relationships, and worse.

Trouble is, they're deciding on behalf of kids who will likely become sexually active within the next few years - it's not the parent who's at risk of warts and cancer, it's the kid.

But the overall rate of cervical cancer is now much lower when looking at cases per 100,000. You’re not more likely to get these rare non-HPV cancers. 80% of cervical cancer is caused by 2 strains of HPV.

An analogy is screening by age. Bowel cancer has historically been extremely rare in under 40s, so no screening takes place. Men are not routinely screened for breast cancer even though they can suffer from it.

If cervical cancer is moving from a relatively common type of cancer to eradication thanks to Gardasil then it’s not necessarily the right cost/benefit ratio to screen for what are very rare types of cancer.

HPV can be transmitted through skin contact, so you don’t need to have sex to get it.

About seven years ago, I had a LLETZ procedure to remove precancerous lesions on my cervix as a result of a persistent HPV infection.

There are zero symptoms, it’s so easy to catch and it can cause cancer. I wish I had the vaccine as a kid.

Yes that’s what I meant by abuse.

@nooshoo I didn't know it was offered at 11, my children aren't old enough. But there was a study in 2021, which showed that the vaccine reduced cervical cancer rates by almost 90% in women in their 20s who were offered it at ages 12 to 13. So perhaps the age has been lowered to see if they can improve that result further.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02178-4/abstract

There are many strains of HPV, you can catch a different strain. A few strains are linked to cervical cancer. Also, you don’t need to have sex to catch it. You can get it from skin contact with an infected persons downstairs bits.

You can't catch a different strain if you're long-term celibate (including not rubbing up against someone's genitals). So I'm presuming the risk is of a dormant strain becoming active again.

Long-term celibates can become victims of sexual assault.

I find it bizarre this thread has gone on so long, as frankly you got your answer from the first responder! And yes, you could have googled it. There is no set age actually - here in Cambridgeshire many schools administer the vax to 13 yo kids. I’m not sure why it would boyher you for the vax to be given to 11 yo kids?

It’s probably best to ask a doctor these questions.

Because OP was not posting in good faith - they had an agenda.