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?

@Caligirl,It’s relevant when discussing the UK vaccination programme that the vast vast majority of smears here are done by nurses, not Drs.

So? Surely the point is that they are done? Unclear why you are picking up on this other than a decision to be pedantic? I can only go on what my personal experience is in the UK: And doctors have always done my smear tests.

The point is to get the smear test done by someone who is qualified to do them.

Annoying OP and thread. Dumb

Is it one dose? My daughter got one at 12 and one this year at 14.

I'm in the US, maybe it's different.

In the UK it changed a year or so ago to one dose, I think when it changed to the nonovalent vaccine.

"they may have only tested and received approval to give that particular vaccine to the girls of that age. The NHS may have only had limited funding available, and as such decided to limit the provision at that point in time to girls of that age."

Well exactly. They vaccinated girls because they are the ones who grow into pregnant women.

No, not at all. If they wait until the age at which the majority are beginning to be sexually active, then they won't be doing anything to protect the 49% who are active earlier. They've set the age to try and vaccinate before any of them are sexually active. There's no harm in vaccinating early than necessary for the majority; there is harm in vaccinating too late.

No it's fucking not. I was at primary school when I was 11 and I didn't have a clue about sex. Bit weird to be banging on about primary school/just starting secondary school aged kids having sex.

No, it's easier to catch than that, what with 11 year olds not having sex as a rule - it is, however, potentially catastrophic to a foetus, which is something that happens only when sexual contact takes place (legal or otherwise) and is exactly why the vaccination was given prior to any likely sexual activity.

Unless you think that Public Health measures specifically intended to protect as yet unconceived infants was also to 'encourage' 12 year olds to think they could have sex despite being so young that they cannot consent in any form? If so, does giving 15 month old babies the MMR encourage sex? Obviously not.

Vaccination against Rubella prior to any realistic likelihood of sexual activity protects girls from giving birth to severely disabled babies or miscarrying in the future and boys from transmitting Rubella to unvaccinated girls and women who have conceived, vaccination against HPV prior to any realistic likelihood of sexual activity protects boys and girls from cancers in the future.

You are intentionally being stupid right…the age of 11 is when they are saying that ‘all’ children likely would not have become sexually active (and obviously I realise that it isn’t going to be all, but the vast majority). The longer they leave it the more children will have begun to catch it.

This post is very off.

The OP seems to be weirdly fixated with children being sexually active.

But also the OP is wrong about when it’s given, it can be given as young as 11, but as it’s aimed to be given in year 8 or 9, so between 12 and 14.

this is both to try to get it done before children become sexually active, having the two year groups means most will be jabbed in year 8, but if you were off school that day, can be caught up in year 9 when the school immunisation team visit to jab the year 8s, and they tend to avoid much going into year 10 and 11 as those are important school years.

I’ve not heard of any area doing these jabs in year 7. But if you want to take your child to have their immunisations at the doctors, not have them done at school (which some people do due for various reasons), you can have this one from the age of 11.

Just gonna leave this here. FYI- yes most ppl do clear HPV virus naturally. It does not lie dormant and there are many strains of HPV.

www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/human-papilloma-virus-and-cancer

It's a very weird thread. And literally the first respond adequately explained the reasoning, behind it. But OP still seemed to want someone to tell her it meant that kids are having sex at 12 if the vaccine is recommended at 11.

No, as many of other posters have said it’s done at this age or similar before they are sexual active. You can get it through close contact that isn’t sexual. Mothers can also pass it on during childbirth. I don’t see giving it at this age is a big deal. Surely it’s a good thing. At 12 years old you can start becoming sexual active. So if you give it at that age it say 14 it might be too late.

But how are is to understand? You are very defensive and have an attitude with people hive you the reasons why. Are you okay? Don’t ask a question then get snarky because you don’t like what they write.

Yup, they do. And if you haven’t had the vaccine yourself, you can always have ot- even later in life, although y8 before sexually active has the best efficacy.
Denmark vaccinates boys & girls.

With all due respect, chapter 28 says exactly what I was saying. A poster said that the situation re the HPV vaccine was the same as for Rubella. I said it wasn't. Chapter 28 says that children are vaccinated to protect pregnant mothers around them. We also know that women are recommended to have bloods done before TTC in case they need a Rubella booster for example. So it isn't the same situation at all. I was simply pointing that out.

As for my questions, there is a lot of misunderstanding on this thread and there are conflicting reasons being given and in any event asking questions is good. Closing down discussion is not good.

@Notanideafornow I just wanted to say that I read all your posts and I think your posts have been amazing. All of the official information for this vaccine says that there are some rare risks and it is officially not recommended to use earlier versions of the vaccination and in relation to the current vaccine dc who have life threatening allergies are advised not to have the current vaccine; I am very sorry about your dc and it sounds as though you and your gp have made informed decisions. You were faced with awful accusations and your responses were fantasically assertive and polite, all credit to you.

No. It takes two doses to get fully vaccinated and they usually only visit the schools once or twice per year. Round here they do the first towards end of yr 8, when most of the kids will be 13. Then 2nd dose in yr9, when they're 14. Lots of kids end up missing one dose, so many aren't fully vaccinated at the earliest opportunity either. And whether you like it or not, many kids are starting to become sexually active not long after that (as has always been the case).

A few posters asked why I was asked the question - basically tweens and teens today are bombarded with porn, oversexualised comics and books, age inappropriate information about various things related to sex and in my dc's peer group this has been the case since they were around 11. DC was showing me things online which their classmates were reading in study periods when DC was 11, and I was really shocked at the sexual element. There is far more sex talk amongst teens, dangerous attitudes towards sex, and based on what dc says, a lot more sexual activity in young teens compared to the past, and it is ever increasing. It is a big problem. Which is not being dealt with adequately by schools or the government at the moment.

I haven't said there is a link in relation to the HPV vaccine timing, I asked the question because others have made the link. I don't have any decided thoughts on the matter because i haven't looked into it sufficiently.

A few posters asked why I was asked the question - basically tweens and teens today are bombarded with porn, oversexualised comics and books, age inappropriate information about various things related to sex and in my dc's peer group this has been the case since they were around 11. DC was showing me things online which their classmates were reading in study periods when DC was 11, and I was really shocked at the sexual element.

That hasn’t been our experience at all and we pay close and careful attention to what’s going on with our kids and their friends. If you’ve noticed something different, it might have more to do with specific social factors like your children's particular school environment or peer group or perhaps your dc are more prone to peer pressure.

But are you really suggesting that getting the HPV vaccine in Year 8 causes early sexual behaviour? That’s a reductive view. Just like giving a child a tetanus shot doesn’t encourage them to step on rusty nails, giving an HPV vaccine doesn’t promote sex, it prepares their immune system to protect them if they are ever exposed.

Just in the interests of accuracy, it's now just one vaccine, given in Year 8, so not to 11 year olds (in London, at least).

Yes. Plus...

"its not completely unheard of for 13/ 14 year olds to be having sex, however much we don’t want them to." Shakespeare's Juliet was 13, IIRC.

I'mm 66. I have HPV, which doesn't fix itself. I have dodgy cervical cells. Luckily I'm not Jade Goody. Luckily the NHS keeps looking after me, even though they normally stop cervical smears when you're 65. If I had a child, girl or boy, I would be very keen to make sure they were vaccinated while the NHS was still able to do preventative medicine.

The key word in the paper is "usually" clears HPV. Not ALWAYS. And given there is no routine test to determine whether or not someone actually has the virus - other than a cervical test for women, and an anus test for men, there's no real way of knowing whether it's been cleared or not. As such you have to assume that it hasn't.