HPV vaccination .... feeling antsy about it

[MamaG]

So DD brought home the leaflet and consent form today. Am feeling a bit "iffy" about consenting.

I'm not a "non-vaccinator" type, but I'm feeling rather anxious about what seems to me to be a "new" vaccination.

Would appreciate your thoughts :)

My 3 dds haven't had it. Not tested enough for me. I explained my reasoning to my dds and said that if they researched it themselves and wanted to go ahead at 18 then ok, but while they were my responsibility I would prefer them not too.

DD1 is having hers on tuesday. I did read a fair bit about side effects as well as well as the positives. I was fairly sure I was going to c

DD1 is having hers on tuesday. I did read a fair bit about side effects as well as well as the positives. I was fairly sure I was going to consent but just wanted a bit more info first. I am slightly worried because it is so new but I remember feeling this way when she had the mmr.

I did worry when she said it was tuesday though because we are going on holiday on Wednesday. Fingers crossed everything goes ok.

Well, if your dd has to have abnormalities to her cervix (or throat!...) treated or further investigated in future and then spends the rest of her life hoping they don't return or become cancerous, you'll probably regret your decision (I've been told once you've contracted HPV, the vaccination is unlikely to be protective against abnormalities developing as a result of the strain of HPV you already have - you need the vaccination prior to any possibiliy of having already contracted the virus). If she doesn't, then you'll think you made the right choice/won't care one way or the other. You don't know for certain which ending you'll get, of course, so you need to decide which scenario would make you feel worse: following advice from supposed experts to help protect your dd from the proven, concrete risk of developing cervical cancer as a result of highly contagious strains of a virus that anyone can catch if they've had sex, whether protected or unprotected (it's found on the skin, not in the semen, and a condom hasn't been invented that covers all possible areas of transmission); or ignoring advice on the basis of a possible, unknown and unproven serious risk of a vaccine that spent many years being developed and tested prior to approval for use on the general population (at vast taxpayers' expense, so unless you believe it's a conspiracy to make the proletariat infertile - you never know, there are rather a lot of us - or the drug companies did a particularly good job of fooling governments around the world, this is likely to be because the powers that be believe that it will do more good in health terms than it will do harm). Of course no vaccine is risk free and therefore consenting to any vaccine is an extremely stressful experience, but clearly it is on the whole thought as good an idea for public health as any of the other vaccines offered at colossal public expense, so I don't see why you should be more dubious about this one than any of the others.

I'm with rabbitstew I'm afraid.
My DD(who hates needles) was very firmly told she was to have it. She was let off her flu vaccination in exchange. She's on the list because she gets asthma, but stress and excitement trigger that far more than colds. Also she reacts to them and gets a sore arm for a week. The HPV on didn't bother her at all, which is great because by the last one she was much less jumpy.
We agreed that flu almost certainly meant a week off school, but cervical cancer was a whole different ball game.

It's taken years to get this vaccine to the stage when it is being rolled out. It's not new. I want to protect my daughters from an illness that could rob them of their fertility and their lives. It's a no brainer for me. Dd1 had it last year. She understood what it was about and was keen to have it.

My daughter was in the very first cohort to have this jab in the UK. We talked it through and she herself wanted to have it.

Bless her, she signed her own consent form (which the school then wouldn't accept and I had to give my permission over the phone...).

Anyway, she is fine, all her friends at school are fine, and they have a valuable protection.

my dd's are way too young for this but if they could have it now I would do it! Cervical cancer is a really big thing..a jab to prevent it is, frankly, fabulous!

Thanks all