not letting my 13-year old DD have the cervical cancer jab?

[IloveJudgeJudy]

It's now crunch time. I have a letter and form from school that I have to sign to allow my 13-year old DD have the three cervical cancer jabs. The form HAS TO be in tomorrow, one way or the other.

Last year when this vaccination came in I was all for it. BUT I have been reading up a bit more about it and have read that it only covers 70% of cervical cancers, far fewer people are affected by cervical cancers than by, for example, lung cancer or heart disease. I have also read, but I am not sure how true it is, that some girls have had quite severe adverse reactions to the vaccination.

So, AIBU to stop my daughter having these jabs?

chegirl - I'm very sorry for your loss.

My daughter has not had it and I do not intend for her to have it any timer soon.

I did not give consent on the school forms and the school took my wishes into account. No pressure, nothing.

In a year group of 60 about 2/3 had the innoculation. The remaining third were a mixed bunch, some just recovering from swine flu, some objectors and many were muslim girls.

The majority of girls were fine with injections 1 & 2.

Unfortunately one girl had a very severe reaction and was hospitalized. Who really knows what her future will hold.

My family have been affected by CC. I still choose not to have the innoculation for now.

Dd was the only girl in her year not to have it. She knows that if she wants it she has to have it before she is sexually active but prefers to wait for now. Hopefully in a few years time we will know more about the possible effects, plus she is more likely to be protected at the time of her life when she actually needs it. She doesn't need it now.

Yes you are being unreasonable. I am not a huge fan of vaccinations, BUT this is cancer! Women are dying everyday of a totally avoidable and treatable cancer. The vaccination would go some way to preventing women dying. Waiting until your daughter is sexually active is TOO LATE.
I will be encouraging my daughter to have it when she is old enough.

I didnt want my dd to have the jab as it was new....The school had an open night for all parents to attend and ask any questions they wanted only to fine that none of them could be answered. Having an indepth conversation with my dd she told me she was scared of having it so we both decided to wait another year or so and see how things turn out with any possible side effects etc. The other girls except two in class that had the jab all apparently had side effects.

Iris66 are you saying that you used that article as your evidence against vaccinating your child ?

Missmoopy I said before she is sexually active.

I cant bear to read the answers not because im ignorant but because I lost my mother to cervical/ovarian cancer in 1986 when I was 11 .

After witnessing what she went through with all the treatment and the radical selectron treatment if I had a daughter shed be first in line for this.

Toosh, blah.

"It would not have been approved for use if there was any significant danger" is still wrong, whatever the reasons, qualifications, excuses, after-the-fact justifications. It's just not true.

OP good on you for saying it's your decision and not your daughters. It's shameful the way some schools continue to try to persuade children against their parents' wishes.

Just to throw a spanner in the works as soon as me and my friends were told the meningitis jab could make you ill me and about 20 girls faked illness to go home. The boys didn't pretend so as the jab is only being offered to girls I think that is most likely the reason for most girls feeling ill afterwords.

My dd and my ds will be having the jab when they are old enough so it makes them feel a bit ill have you seen how painful the procedure is if abnormal cells are found at a smear never mind how painful cancer is. I watched a lot of my family die at a young age from cancer. My great gran although I never met her died at 40.

There have been no fatalities due to the vaccination but there have been thousands due to cancer feeling a little ill afterwords or fainting (which I frequently do) not cutting it for me especially when these are the same side effects of the meningitis jab. Also I think not giving the jab because your daughter is not sexually active or it might encourage her to be sexually active is the same kind of stone age attitude that meant many girls get pg because their parents wont give them the pill (which can also have very severe side effects).

Also not a nice thought but girls do become sexually active before 18 you know. I was 13 I am 21 now Also at that young an age I was very lax with contraception as were alot of my friends who were also sexually active at 13.

On the other hand by the time I had hit 18 I was very careful and used condoms always.
My mum had no, idea why would you? how can you honestly be so sure they are not active before 18? The legal age is 16 Having the jab or not having the jab will not sway them either way.

So okay your child may be the good girl and the face she shows mummy might be the true face but she might not be and she may have two faces her going out face and her mummy's little angel face don't underestimate children they can be very sneaky and intelligent. But can you really afford to take the risk.

Not sexually active at 13? I would put money on at least some of the daughters being talked about on this thread having some kind of sexual encounter at 13.

And seriously, if they do become sexually active can you rely on them to tell you before they do so they can be vaccinated?

As someone else already said, HPV can cause other cancers as well as cervical cancer, and can be transmitted through other means than just intercourse!

As for the condoms - women use the pill and coil these days to stop getting pregnant. If young people were really being so careful and using condoms why are morning after pill sales so high?

Combined with the cultural attitude to alcohol in this country, I would definitely have my daughter vaccinated just incase she makes that one small mistake that leads to her contracting HPV.

Ok stuffit - good luck with your life never touching anything that has been proven 100% safe for 100+ years. I hope you never need antibiotics, surgery, a dontated organ or even paracetamol.

[sigh]

Some of us have reason to be wary of vaccination. That doesn't make us luddites or careless or dim.

Many people on here have painful experience of both cancer and vaccine damage.
Can we ratchet down the bitching a little

Riven I hadn't seen the report above however it is still my opinion that if people were as skeptical of reports like that and sat down and waited for conclusive evidence they same way they do before giving a vaccine there would be a lot more vaccinated children.

I don't think any one who gives the vaccine is stupid we all make decisions based on experience and my experience is of results of un vaccinated children had I seen or heard of the results of side effects of vaccinated children I might feel differently.

I made my decision with all other vaccines by looking at death and fatality rates in un vaccinated children and death and fatality rates caused by the vaccine to weigh which one is the greater risk then which ever has the more fatalities I go with. Which in this case not that I have researched it thoroughly as my dc have a few years but I suspect cancer has been the cause of more deaths and fatalities than the vaccine.

YABU if you think that "it only covers 70% of cervical cancers, far fewer people are affected by cervical cancers than by, for example, lung cancer or heart disease" is at all relevant to the decision. This is saying there are limits to the protection the jabs offer, well, d'uh! That's like complaining that MMR doesn't protect against HIV.

If however, you have genuine concerns about the safety of the vaccine, YANBU to think about it carefully in discussion with your DD. But for her sake, please can you do this based on looking at the evidence relevant to that?

I have read this thread and I honestly don't understand why you wouldn't give the vaccine? It seems there have been a few, unconfirmed, reports of girls suffering adverse affects? But tests show that the vaccine is effective for at least 5 years, possibly more? Of course there are some risks, I get that - but then there are risks in a lot of things including crossing the street, eating badly or getting pregnant. But cancer is one of the most insidious diseases known to humanity - whatever we can do to prevent it seems like a massive step in the right direction.

I know a woman who, despite having regular pap smears, turned out to have cervical cancer - it just hadn't been picked up! Thank god, once she went symptomatic they figured it out and she seems to be fine now. But it could have gone badly for her so easily.

Riven - the vaccinating boys decision is based on (AFAIK) the fact that HPV in itself isn't harmful and obviously it's only girls who can go on to develop cervical cancer.

My dd (13) had it recently- in fact, her first one was the day after that girl died.
But we still went ahead.