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As a father of a daughter, I don’t worry that giving a girl a vaccine for a skin disease is promoting promiscuity. I fail to understand that argument myself, as of the women I know who have admitted to getting an STD, very few would fall into the promiscuous department. The vast majority got them from long partners that had dubious pasts they did not know about, or who were running around on them without their knowledge (and yes, some of them were married).

I would hate for my daughter to have to live with Genital Warts, and the long term higher risk of cervical cancer if it were something that could be potentially avoided.

Also, knowing that HPV is a SKIN disease, and incredibly common not simply an STD is another fact that most are unaware of. Provided the infection does not get onto the mucous membranes, generally most folks never even know they have it and it goes away on its own. You don’t have to have intercourse to get HPV infections, obviously for it to infect the membranes it would have to be exposed, but that doesn’t mean its all from intercourse etc.

I certainly would not give this to a 9 year old, and would tell anyone who wanted to force me to to get bent. I am concerned with the adverse reactions and long term risks as well, which are not known at this point.

It was clear from my experience with teens that they believed many things that were not true. They are, after all, not adults, and don’t think like adults (and lots of adults also believe untrue things). As I said, many believed that birth control pills also protected them from STDs. I did not say it would make them more have more sex, my concern is that it is marketed to prevent an STD that causes cancer—are the girls getting it being educated that that is the ONLY thing it prevents?

And, how do you know that all of the women you’ve known who got an STD were not promiscuous? (and what’s your definition of promiscious?). You would have to know they were telling you the truth—I’m generally dubious when someone shares their sexual history with me, as most people try to make it what they think you would accept. Many teens are having lots of sex. Believe it.

susie

I agree. I am generally very conservative about these things, and will not give my daughter birth control pills, however I don’t have a problem with the idea behind this vaccine. I just googled HPV, and supposedly 50% of people who are sexually active contract HPV. It seems to me it would be quite easy even for a monogamous married woman to contract it from her husband if he had at least one other partner before her. I want more testing on long term side effects before I would consider vaccinating a child, but I think the idea behind it is sound.