<p>I am starting to look into this for my D’s. Does anyone have any opinions, pro or con? I my D has her gyno appointment in a couple of weeks, so I want to be prepared for her to ask for it or not.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Y</p>
<p>I have not looked into this yet for my girls, but absent any serious negatives, I tend to favor vaccines as preventative measures.</p>
<p>I think it is a good vaccine, I don’t know much about how widely it is yet distributed though.
My daughter just went for a physical and it wasn’t offered.
<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV-vaccine-hcp.htm[/url]”>http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV-vaccine-hcp.htm</a></p>
<p>I’m going to wait about six months to a year to make sure there is no downside, but I’m generally planning to encourage my girls to receive this vaccination.</p>
<p>Is it being offered for boys yet?</p>
<p>If not, why not?</p>
<p>My OB/GYN thinks it’s a great idea–ideally it should be given before any sexual activity. The article I read said it’s effective for at least 5 years – hopefully longer. Many insurers cover at least part of the $360 cost (ours covers 90% if you’re in the 9-23 age group). Will get my D to have it before she goes off to college.<br>
It’s a 3-shot series, so you have to be sure to start it far enough in advance of when they leave for college that they can finish the entire series at home (for easiest scheduling).
Haven’t read anything bad about the vaccine yet, tho it doesn’t protect against STDs, it is definitely being heralded as a breakthrough, greatly reducing the risk of cancer in women.
They’re researching whether the same vaccine has any benefit for males or what vaccine might. So far, it’s only being offered to 9-23 year-old females, as far as I can tell.
Since my D doesn’t even have any close male friends (never mind a BF), I’ll wait a bit before urging her to get hers (prior to her leaving home for college in fall of 2008).</p>
<p>Sorry, I stand corrected that the age group recommended to have the vaccine is 9-26 year old females. CDC is adding the vaccine to the list of recommended childhood vaccines. Here are a few webpages with more info about the vaccine; webmd’s Q&As are helpful (bottom site).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/STDFact-HPV-vaccine.htm[/url]”>http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/STDFact-HPV-vaccine.htm</a></p>
<p><a href=“Directory A - B”>Directory A - B;
<p><a href=“http://www.webmd.com/content/article/123/115100.htm[/url]”>Cervical Cancer: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment;
<p><a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198780,00.html[/url]”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198780,00.html</a></p>
<p>Spinner - Coureur is the vaccine expert, but I think they are not offering it to boys because cancers that may be related to HPV are very rare in men, and not as clearly causally related to HPV as cervical cancer is in women. Therefore, the main reason to vaccinate boys would be to halt spread to their sexual partners, and secondarily to prevent the rare cancer in the male. With limited vaccine supplies, it makes sense to vaccinate women/girls first.</p>
<p>I am urging my 19 year old to get the vaccine, she can get it at the student health service.</p>
<p>Oh, I have heard that there is some concern that the vaccine may not provide lifetime immunity - Coureur, where are you? If I had a young girl, I would wait until she was 12-13, for that reason, longest protection in sexually active age.</p>
<p>My D actually told me about this vaccine. She is a senior in HS.</p>
<p>You have a well-informed D. Not sure if my D is aware of it, but she hates needles. Will have to insist anyway but put it off until next year so she’ll be better protected for college.</p>
<p>My younger d. is taking it (as is her doctor’s daughter), and the older one will when she gets home from Italy. Our insurance covers it at no charge to us.</p>
<p>It is NOT a cervical cancer vaccine, but an HPV vaccine. We will truly know whether it prevents cervical cancer about 30 years from now.</p>
<p>I’m planning on getting it when I can. My pediatrician strongly recommended it. He said that you needed three shots 4 months apart or something like that, so you may want to look into starting it at a time when she will be home at those intervals for vacations and such.</p>
<p>I am going to ask my daughter to wait. I have not been impressed lately with the lack of long term studies on new discoveries in the medical field. It seems like they are rushing many new drugs to market and then years later coming back to say “oops” we inadvertantly caused this to happen. So sorry. Phen-phen, the latest breast cancer drug and many others I can’t think of at the moment…makes me somewhat leery.</p>
<p>My D had her first shot a few weeks ago (Reed had a vaccine clinic). I think it’s wonderful. My gyn recommends the vaccine highly. HPV has been known to cause cervical cancer for a long time, and in fact some gyns recommend an HPV exposure test instead of pap smears (or both).</p>
<p>Downside: very expensive.</p>
<p>There is a schedule for these vaccines, I believe similar to HepB, where the first is about 6 months prior to the last one–map out the dates & where your D will be able to get the shot before starting the series. Not sure there’s much protection if you don’t do the entire series as scheduled.</p>
<p>Check with your insurer–now that CDC is recommending it, more are covering. Our BC/BS will cover 90%, leaving us with $36 or so instead of $360 out-of-pocket.</p>
<p>I can certainly understand waiting for many reasons (heck we are with my D’s needle-phobia & having no interest in sex at this point), but the key is to try to get the females vaccinated BEFORE they become sexually active. </p>
<p>Waiting may also give your insurer a bit more time to be more generous with reimbursement of vaccine; our insurer paid for D’s HepB more generously than S because she was in the target age-group & S was “too old.” Later, they were more generous with both age groups, but we figured to get both vaccinated at the same time or we’d have trouble keeping it all straight.</p>
<p>As one who has been through this with my daughter who tested positive for HPV with a suspicious pap smear, I suggest to anyone who would question it there is no reason to wait. Please have your daughters do it now. She is testing OK now, but needs to go back every six months for retests and each time we are all on pins and needles with worry. DON’T WAIT!</p>
<p>Good perspective–thanks. Hope your D’s PAP smears continue to be negative & the HPV was a false positive. Maybe I’ll urge D to get her vaccinations this summer.</p>
<p>Cangel - thanks.</p>
<p>I still wonder if it would be good for boys to have it, since they are the ones who are spreading it to girls. Maybe when the supply is larger, they will recommend it for boys, also.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV[/url]”>http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV</a></p>
<p>In regard to a previous post, HPV testing does not replace and should not be a replacement for pap smears. </p>
<p>In patients who demonstrate ASC, atypical squamous cells on a pap smear, the DNA testing for viral presence may be warranted. If the test reveals a viral subtype which is more problematic, more frequent exams are appropriate.</p>
<p>I hoped this is not confusing. The presence of virus does not indicate that cancer is present. That is a cytologic or pathologic diagnosis.</p>