As A Mother I would never give this vaccine to my daughter at their ages-they are within the target range. There is a higher chance that my daughter will be hit by lighting than her having sex in the next few years. When she turns 18 she can make the choice. Twenty One children have died because of this medicine, I bet their parents regret giving it to their children. They are supposed to be in a position of protecting their children, not submitting their children to be the lab rats of the drug industry.

Linda Fishbine

According to this: "By their late teenage years, at least 3/4 of all men and women have had intercourse, and more than 2/3 of all sexually experienced teens have had 2 or more partners."

If she's vaccinated at 18, it may be too late.

21 children have died? Source? And far more people have died in auto accidents, but we still drive cars.

Linda Fishbine:

There is a higher chance that my daughter will be hit by lighting than her having sex in the next few years.

Riiiight. Only other people's daughters, you know, the *bad* girls, have sex before age 18.

You just go on telling yourself that.

14.9 is the AVERAGE age of initial sexual intercourse. And this applies across ALL populations. Highly religious families that have been teaching Abstinence AT MOST delay this by 1 year (but the data shows for them its 14.9). BUT the price for that delay is that the first encounters are likely to NOT USE condoms or other "safe sex" protections

Now according to the National Oceanics and Atmosphereics Administration, the likelihood of being struck by lighting is 1/280,000,000

Now 21 PEOPLE (not only children because some have taken the ) have died after receiving the immunization. That does NOT mean that they died BECAUSE of the injections. But even if they did, given the number of doses given, THIS rate of death is on the order of being hit by lightening.

If anyone is making children a "lab rat" it is you -in your willingness to let your daughter be at risk of a very horrible form of cancer, just so you can pretend that she is not likely to have sex because YOU are a better mom

Even if your daughter is a virgin on her wedding day at the age of 25 she could still get the virus and the cancer from her partner. What if she were raped? You can't go back in time and get the vaccine in time to prevent infection.

Yes, the disease is sexually transmitted. The point is to get the vaccine early enough to be sure you've beaten the horse out of the barn.

You say your daughter can make the choice at 18 but that doesn't mean she won't make the choice to become sexually active before then. Good luck with that.

I will grant you the fact that it is hard for parents to picture their preteens in sexual situations. However, to make health decisions based on the assumption that teenagers won't have sex shows pretty poor judgment.

Greater chance of being hit by lightening eh - good luck with that. When I graduated high school close to 10 years ago (at the age of 18) I had already been with 4 people (all guys) 3 who were boyfriends and 1 who was my best friend at the time but I was not actually dating. No I don't regret it either, actually I have very fond memories of all of them, it was my choice, I was not pressured in any way. Matter of fact the fondest memories are of the "friend" not the boyfriends.

Oh, and by the way, I was a "good" girl - took all honors and advanced classes, was *this* close to graduating in the top 10, was among those with the highest scores on my SATs of my class, was involved with marching/symphonic/jazz band, cheerleader, on the track team. My parents knew all of my friends well - I am sure my mother knew I was sexually active but she knew I was a smart girl and protected myself from disease and pregnancy. And, because I was not over-protected by my parents, I didn't go crazy with partying, drinking, sex, etc once I was out living on my own, which is what I saw in many other kids my age.

My boyfriend of 3 years is 7 years older than me, 33 - his first time was when he was 13. Which would have been 20 years ago - so you can't tell me that people having sex at a young age is new thing. He also attended private Catholic schools, from kindergarten all the way through high school.

I'm too late for the vaccine, but I wish I would have been able to get it. How do you think your daughter will feel if, by some chance, she does catch the HPV virus? Don't you think she'll be angry with you for deciding not to vaccinate her, when she was too young to make the decision? Why risk your daughter's health over some issues you have with yourself? It's not fair for some young girls to be at a higher risk because their parents were too stupid to see the vaccine for what it is - prevention.

The sun causes cancer too you know - do you wear sunscreen each and every day, not just days when you will directly in sunlight such as days at the beach? I do - I wear sunscreen on my face and arms every day. Again, it's called prevention - against skin cancer, not to mention signs of aging. I know most people do not. Incidental sun exposure over time is just as bad if not worse than a week at the beach with no sunscreen. Do you keep your kids out of the sun? Do you not allow them to ride in a car, which might crash through no fault of their own? You could drive down the street and be hit by someone else not paying attention. I could go on and on...

given that the vaccine is only approved for woman under 26, the government is assuming most women get most of their sexual partners in before that, so they have to start pretty early.

I never heard about these 21 deaths. source? besides, that's 21 out of the millions of women who have received it.

I want to get it for myself but I can't afford it because I'm OVER the age. I wish that I had gotten it as a kid! I've had a cervical biopsy at age 29 and it is NOT fun- both the procedure and the concern that I could have cancer. And I didn't have ANY sexual partners until I was 25. If you think this is something only teenage sluts have to worry about, you've got a lot to learn.