I have had many discussions with numerous MDs in regard to this vaccine. I’m not telling anyone to not have their daughter vaccinated, I’m just stating my position on not having my own daughter given this vaccine at 11 years old.
My position and opposition to this vaccine has nothing to do with morality and some blind faith idea my daughter will forever remain a virgin. My position is based upon my own research and my opposition is to the state mandating this vaccine.
HPV is not a communicable disease in the same way as measles, mumps, or chicken pox are communicable diseases and for that reason alone there should be no mandate for it.
Look, I don't want to get into the whole mandate debate. I will say, however, that approx. 80% of American women are infected with one type of HPV or another in their lifetimes. 50% of these occur within three years of the onset of sexual activity. The time to vaccinate is before women become sexually active, which is why we recommend vaccination at around age 12.
I’m hoping to wait until 18 before I feel the need to vaccinate my daughters. At 18, they can make informed decisions about their body on their own.
I will say that my 14 year old son was up for a lot of vaccines. There were some that I wanted him to have because of risk factors in our family (flu), but there were several that I wasn’t sure about (meningitis). My son is very smart, so I let the doctor explain the benefits versus the risk to my son. My son said he thought he should have them. We went ahead with them.