It SEEMS OK isn't reassuring to some mothers. How do we know this is safe? When did they test this on human populations and how many years have passed? Or are they going to find out when these girls turn 30 and come down with a weird illness or cancer that it was vaccine related?

And why didn't they develop a male vaccine???

If you're interested in the data, the CDC has a lot of info about it, including the report with the vaccination recommendations.

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And they are testing a vaccine for boys now. I assume they started with girls because the effects for women of getting HPV are more serious. I'm not sure there is even a test for men for HPV.

No medicine is ever truly 'safe'; that's why it's restricted to prescription by highly trained people (doctors) and distribution by other highly trained people (pharmacists). The only 'safe' medicine is the one that doesn't do anything. But the reason we use these potentially dangerous drugs is that, in the final reckoning, the odds of great suffering, injury, or death are less than those of just 'taking our chances' with the disease. As a woman, it's almost an inevitability that I will get some form of HPV. I would rather take my chances with a vaccine that would give me some hope of avoiding the ones that are likely to give me cancer.

epkermitt2:

It SEEMS OK isn't reassuring to some mothers. How do we know this is safe? When did they test this on human populations and how many years have passed? Or are they going to find out when these girls turn 30 and come down with a weird illness or cancer that it was vaccine related?

And why didn't they develop a male vaccine???

Well that's when as a mother you have to do the research and work with your doctor to find out the facts.