Question for parents of girls?, No debate please just curious

How many of you will have your daughters get the Gardasil vaccine? At a recent physical for my 12 yr old daughter her doctor recommended it and having already researched it on my own we decided to do it. He says they can get the shot as early as 9 up till their late teens if they havent been sexually active. He say with Kimberly being 12 she was at an ideal age to get it. Its a series of 3 shots she'll get the next one the end of next month and the last in Feb. I just figure with the history of cancer we have in our family why not add this extra protection for my girls. Anyway just wondering if anyone else is or has considered it?

Well my daughter is not quite 5 but as of right now if she were of age I would NOT have it done. I will re-look at it when she get closer to the 'ideal' age.

too new IMO - but in your situation with the history of cancer in your family I can't blame you - if I was in your position I would maybe think differently about it

Like the other ladies said, if Bella were of age, NO WAY!

I am sure when the time comes I will do it if recommended!

My kids WILL be getting it. Mainly cause every woman in my family has had a hsyterectomy before the age of 30. Not always due to cervical cancer or anything but because of female problems. So I will give them that protection.
I know lots of kids who have had the shot and are fine.

I really know next to nothing about it at this point, but when my kids get closer to that age I'll look into it and definitely consider it.

Same... I haven't really researched it because Ashley isn't close to that age yet. But, I will most definitely consider it and look into it more when Ashley is of age.

Just curious, how long do they test a vaccine before it even goes on the market?

No its new and effects aren't proven. I will not get this shot for any of my daughters.

Thankfully, we'll have a 10 yr track record on which to base our decision.
If I feel its safety record is sound, I'll discuss it with my daughter, and we'll decide together.

We will do the same...

Same as Jeannie, I have about 10 years or so myself before Hanna and well 12-13 before Aubrey is old enough, I'll then research it and find out if they should get it.

i would do my research and highly consider it with my girls.

As of right now not sure if our insurance will pay for it
From what they said to me the shot has been out for many years just started to offered here.

The Dr highly recomends it we shall see

No I wouldn't do it...It is too new for one and secondly it does not protect against cervical cancer-it protects against HPV which causes some cases of cervical cancer. If it runs in your family it wouldn't protect you...

This is a really tough one for me. I know that the medical community and most of the people I respect feel strongly that this is a safe vaccine that every girl should get. I wish I had the luxury of time (that those of you who have younger children have) to find out what the safety really is of this drug. But my girls already are teenagers, so this is something that I am still grappling with.

I have not had them vaccinated yet. Rightly or wrongly, I am just too worried that a whole generation of girls will be guinea pigs for this drug. Too many times we have found out too late the serious side effects caused by these types of medicines. (Diethylstilbesterol sp?/ DES, for instance, which caused a variety of infertility problems in daughters and sons of the women who took it in the 1950's)

Bottom line: I don't have a moral problem with this vaccine. It is rather a loss of confidence in the testing of new drugs in this country.

I am trying to wait as long as I can to have my girls vaccinated, but I realize that this might be foolish. My kids and I have had honest thorough conversations/discussions about sex. They have taken sex ed classes at school. They are well informed about sexual activity, the risks, etc. Presently, I am confident that they have not yet become sexually active, but I am not foolish enough to believe that this couldn't happen anytime soon.

We have discussed this vaccine, and we all decided to wait. I hope it is not a mistake.

Same here.

As someone who had to deal with such an issue I will definitely get it for my girls if I deem it safe and appropriate, but not until I research it. It is very new, but luckily I have many years before having to make that decision.

My daughters will be getting it. I already know alot of younger women/girls who have gotton it. Here in Australia, it is a government funded thing. All girls between the ages of 13 and 26 can recieve the vaccines for free, either at school or at the doctors. Alot of friends with high-school aged daughters signed the permission slips and there daughters got the vaccine at school, just like they would with Hep B or whatever they give you in High School.

Personally, I don't see how a mother can stop her teenage daughter from recieving the vaccine if she wants. By the time they get to 16, 17 or 18, you can't really say no. And I wouldn't say no, since vitually all sexually active people have the human papilloma virus (sp?), and it is the leading cause of cervical cancer, and alot of high school children are sexually active, there is no denying it.

When your kid is a teenager, it's not like when they're a child. They can go out and get vaccinated if they want, and I expect a lot of them do.

HPV causes practically all cervical cancers. The amount of cases of cervical cancer caused by HPV is to large for the word some to be used,

I was quite interested in a few of the things that Nina mentioned....mainly

Here is an article I found on it with the following information:

In the articles I have read the % of cervical cancer directly related to HPV varies greatly. There are fingers pointed in every direction. Some research suggests that because of rapid cell division if you are already pre-disposed to cervical cancer HPV speeds up the process,others say it is a sole cause of cancer in 18-53% (by age)....As I said before it is too new of a vaccine to trust for my daughter.

Someone mentioned DES that drug was used from the late 30's into the 70's before the mass amount of problems it caused were linked. It is now know to cause infertility and cancer...I am not willing to take the chance that my child is used as a research subject.