HPV vaccination - advice

[KatieB55]

There is some advice for parents considering the HPV vaccination for their daughters on this website:

anhinternational.org/hpv-vaccination/

and a video from parents in Ireland:

www.facebook.com/REGRET.ie

"Moreover, 47% of women who develop cancer have not been screened in the past 5 years or have never been screened in the UK and this group is more likely to have advanced cancer."

From Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists Scientific Impact Paper March 2016

Sorry - the full quote.

"A major success of the English cervical screening programme has been its population coverage, which achieved 80.6% in 2004 but had declined to 77.8% in 2014 (5-year coverage). The lowest coverage is
found among those aged 25–29 years; in 2014, 63.3% of women in this group had been screened within a 3.5-year interval. Moreover, 47% of women who develop cancer have not been screened in the past 5
years or have never been screened in the UK and this group is more likely to have advanced cancer. Several studies have identified demographic groups associated with nonattendance in the UK cervical screening programmes; these include young women, older women (greater than 50 years of age), ethnic minority women and those in low socioeconomic groups. Reasons for nonattendance are variable and complex and often include inconvenience, fear of cancer, apathy and concern about the actual procedure."

That's interesting loops. I know that theoretically the HPV vaccine might protect against genital and oral cancers, but I haven't seen an analysis of the numbers of expected cancers with and without vaccination. You seem to know quite a lot on the topic - do you know if anyone has modelled the impact and what the relevant numbers are?

I totally agree re. the false sense of security. Unfortunately I know several people in real life who assume that they can't get cervical cancer because they've been vaccinated.

Thank you for all these informative posts and links. I've made my decision and I'll be making an appointment tomorrow for my overdue smear test.