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FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
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Blueberry26
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I worry that with this vaccine it will lead to the need for regular pap smears getting even less attention than it already does. By getting a pap smear every year, you also get in for a pelvic exam (they're usually combined) so you can watch for any of the other myriad diseases and problems of the vaginal region. I wish there could be even just one commercial for this for every 3 for Gardasil. While having a vaccine is great, it's not a miracle shot. And it only prevents *four* of the over 100 different viruses that cause HPV. So yay, but in this discussion we cannot forget these other really important issues.

Ladies, get regular pap smears and pelvic exams!
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HoseaCretan
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I am going through painful procedures for precancerous cells due to HPV, and let me tell you, if I or my partner had been able to have been vaccinated, it's possible I would be saving pain and heartache. It's a women's issue that does not affect women only.
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smileonadog
08/28/09

@HoseaCretan: I hear you. The level of stress this has caused in my life since I found out I had it is immense. My gyno is very cool, very reassuring, but still, it sucks. I dread each and every test and worry a lot. If this vaccine can save lives and spare women from dealing with this, why wouldn't everyone get vaccinnated.
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Pantra
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
My gynecologist was very anti-vaccine for boys "because there's no point" and women over the age of 30 "because after 30, almost everyone's monogamous anyhow." It was such a huge logic fail, from so many angles, than I was speechless.

Seriously, if HPV was known for giving straight men CANCER in their privates, the national dialogue on vaccines would be loud, stringent and unceasing. It's like the "common cold of STDs" meme has convinced people that HPV is no big deal. But I'm pretty sure cervical cancer is not a day at the beach.
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colormeroutine
08/28/09

@Pantra: I would have switched doctors so fast that my paper gown would have turned to ash
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Edited by colormeroutine at 08/28/09 12:16 PM colormeroutine was starred colormeroutine was unstarred

likepenguins
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Absolutely it should be approved. I was not likely to get mumps, but I got a vaccination for it, because I could have been a carrier and given it to someone else. I did work with TB patients, and never contracted it, but I still had to get tested and revaccinated, in case I was carrying it and gave it to someone else.

Sometimes I with the acronym STD had never been popularized. Too much focus on the "sexually-transmitted" part, and not enough focus on the big honking DISEASE part.
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charliekohler
08/28/09

@likepenguins: Actually, they changed the name. They're STIs- because they're infections, not disesases.
I know. Weird. But true.
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bangers
08/28/09

@charliekohler: also because "disease" sounds far more damning than "infection" -the name change ideally was supposed to reduce stigma
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colormeroutine
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Absolutely gardasil needs to be given to boys. Haven't they been testing men for HPV in other countries for years? I never understood why we don't routinely. Sure, its unlikely ever to cause any problems for them, but that doesn't help the women they are (usually unknowingly) spreading it around to
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Zombies make the heart grow fonder
08/28/09

@colormeroutine: I was under the impression that there was no way to test for HPV in men.[www.cdc.gov]
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Edited by Zombies make the heart grow fonder at 08/28/09 11:43 AM

colormeroutine
08/28/09

@Zombies make the heart grow fonder: There are tests, they just aren't FDA approved yet. And aren't likely to become so very quickly because since it usually doesn't affect the men directly, testing them isn't seen as necessary or worth putting money into
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boobookitt
08/28/09

@colormeroutine: It affects men who have sex with men. But I don't think that would make an effective argument somehow.
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BeckySharper
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I am 100% for Gardasil being given to boys. They get HPV too, and although it's much less likely to cause health problems for them, the whole purpose of immunization is to protect EVERYONE by create herd immunity.
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wordinedgewise
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I'm just waiting for the moms of some of the boys to start saying "Oh I'm not going to get Johnny vaccinated, he's only 12 but I'm sure he'll never sleep with any of those dirty sluts."

Of COURSE we need to give it to boys. Put it in their goddamn breakfast cereal.
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Yamunation
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
People will always be closed-minded fanatics against anything that helps women.

So I guess we should just stop researching a cure for AIDS, and all other STDs, because to find a cure means we are encouraging youth to have sex????

Can't they think for a moment, of all the women who are raped? Knowing the risk women are at for rape, I'm amazed parents would allow this deadly disease be trasmitted to their daughters. Nice parenting. And, even if a girl waits until marriage for sex, the guy most likely has not. That means, she is STILL at risk, even though she adhered to the rules of fanatics.
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Eriu
03/27/09

@Yamunation: I don't like bringing rape or people who save themselves for marriage into this. It sort of implies that people who consent to sex or don't save themselves deserve it more. People should care about the risk to others' (and in turn the general public's) health whether it's their own daughter or their son's future wife or a random "slut." No rape argument necessary.
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Hana Maru
03/27/09

@Yamunation: Yes, thank you. People like to act like girls and women are always culpable for STIs and pregnancy, even though rape is pandemic. And when it comes to their sons, parents never think their precious boys could do such a thing.
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Hana Maru
03/27/09

@Eriu: She's not saying that rape victims or abstinent-til-marriage folks deserve it, but that telling girls to be good doesn't help protect them. Rape is frighteningly common and a big way in which women contract diseases, yet it's largely ignored in favor of policing girls' choices.
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Quecchua (Subversive Unschooling Witch in Toronto)
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I am so very suspicious about vaccines...It is such a billion dollar industry. If there wasn't so much to gain from injecting dead viruses into mine or my girl's bloodstream, I might even think about getting it. But since it will make someone filthy rich....mmm no thank you.
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CollegeBookworm
03/27/09

@Quecchua: A billion dollar industry that has basically eradicated many of the diseases that used to kill thousands upon thousands of people.

Check out this thread for some info on why the financial aspect of vaccination isn't so important. We discussed herd immunity a lot- the concept that if you choose to opt out or choose to opt your children out of vaccination, you'll basically be putting the entire society at risk. [jezebel.com]
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CollegeBookworm
03/27/09

@CollegeBookworm: That link doesn't work. Hold it... Here [jezebel.com]
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tscheese
03/27/09

@Quecchua: Most vaccines are not a major money-maker for doctors and clinics. The fancy, flashy stuff like Gardasil is expensive, sure, but most essential childhood vaccines are not prohibitively expensive, and much of that cost goes toward research, transportation, and preservation of the vaccines.

The "dead virus particles" teach your body to kill live virus particles. You don't have to love the HPV vaccine, which is new and controversial and admittedly very expensive, but you'd do the rest of us a disservice if you and your child don't get vaccines from diseases that kill.

Hell, even if Big Pharma is getting some throwbacks, I'd rather line my pediatrician's coffers with a few extra bucks than see my kid die of polio.
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argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?
03/27/09

@Quecchua: so, let me get this straight. you don't want to prevent your daughter from contracting hpv and potentially developing cervical cancer (which can kill you or make you infertile) because someone else might be making money from it?

wow. you are missing the point entirely and putting your daughter's health at risk. niiiiiiice.
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lalaland13
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I can't even figure out if I want this vaccine or not. I think I'm on the upper end of the recommended age range, but it's expensive and I just don't know. The FDA has really effed up things before, and...I don't know. But if in a few years, I have kids and they have ascertained that it's definitely OK, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
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Maritsa
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
If they can show that this is safe, I would absolutely have my son vaccinated even if there was no benefit to him. Because he's uncircumcised he does have a slightly higher risk of penile cancer, so it would have some minimal benefit, but even if it didn't, it would help any woman he slept with.

I'm VERY pro-vaccination, but the safety of this vaccine does concern me a little. I don't know all I need to about it yet, but I will before the time comes to make this decision.
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LaComtesse
03/27/09

@Maritsa: *sigh* There are so many reasons to love you in that post...
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Eriu
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I don't have the energy to say everything I want to (and have already said) here. But HPV doesn't cause "sores." Not a cool tag.
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sciencerules
03/27/09

@Eriu: it does, actually. There are 146 strains of HPV (that we know of right now, anyway). Two of them are associated with cervical cancer risk, and two of them are associated with genital warts--the marketing for Cervarix, the UK equivalent of Gardasil, was done towards *both* genders with a genital wart focus. Gardasil protects you against all four, and I'm pretty sure it's the less-focused-upon genital wart protection that's behind the promiscuity argument.
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agnesohmygod
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I'd hate to think that if a vaccine were available for HIV, also transmittable by sex, we'd hear this same ridiculousness. Jeez.
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SarahMC
03/27/09

@agnesohmygod: We hear it w/r/t condoms, so I'd assume it'd be the same deal, yeah.
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Flackette Goes Retro
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
My gyno said she would be having all 3 of her daughters vaccinated before they reached adolescence. That's enough approval for me, if doctors are giving it to their own kids.
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Eric Northman is mine
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I can just imagine being a doctor trying to reason with one of these morons.

me: so you're saying you don't want to vaccinate your son/daugther because you think it will encourage them to be slutty
parent: yes
me: would you rather he/she's a virgin who dies of cervical cancer
parent: he/she just has to wait till he's/she's married
me: what if her husband/wife has HPV but no visible signs and passed it on to her/him
parent: ummm. well, ummm, (head explodes!!!)
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Eric Northman is mine
03/27/09

@Sookie Stackhouse: edit err de menz don't have cervixes so just cancer.
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IvyLeagueMetalhead
03/27/09

@Sookie Stackhouse: Oh, Stewardess? I speak Fundie! Here, let me translate: In this case, cancer would be punishment for marrying someone "loose" enough to have had previous sexual partner(s).
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LaComtesse
03/27/09

@Sookie Stackhouse: How DARE you even SUGGEST I would allow my daughter to have a cervix let alone sex!
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Eric Northman is mine
03/27/09

@IvyLeagueMetalhead: Ohhh, good one that should have been my next line.
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FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines

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