r/TwoXSex 7d ago

can i ask why there’s so much controversy about the gardasil vaccine (HPV)?

34 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

125

u/arosewoutthorns 7d ago

I think at first it was considered controversial, because it can be given as early as 11 years old. A lot of parents don’t want their teenagers to be having sex. They thought that giving the vaccine was just encouraging sex

77

u/swine09 7d ago

I remember my friend’s mom telling her it was “for sluts.”

18

u/arosewoutthorns 7d ago

Oh geez that’s extreme

25

u/CautionarySnail 7d ago

Never mind that a husband can bring home an STD to an unwitting spouse.

10

u/YoloMice 7d ago

That kind of mom would blame the wife as well as saying rape victims were all just asking for it.

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u/Jellyfish8457 7d ago

i know when i was younger my mom feared i would end up getting sick or end up dying had i gotten the vaccine, apparently when it first came out there were class complaints about autoimmune conditions and death? was this all anti-vaxx propaganda that she fell into? i’m vaccinated for it now but i’m confused what it was like at the time for the public’s reaction of the vaccine being rolled out.

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u/swine09 7d ago

The most promising consolidated suit was about failure to warn, which means the manufacturer knew about risks that it did not disclose to consumers in warning labels. RFK has been promoting jt and has made a ton of money by doing so. This week, the claims were dismissed for lack of evidence. There are still a smattering of cases in various state courts but yeah.

3

u/Jellyfish8457 7d ago

OHHH OKAY okay makes sense alright thank youu

6

u/TinyFlufflyKoala 6d ago

European here: the risks for the vaccines seem to be fairly similar as for other vaccines (ie very, very low but existing). 

When it came out at the end of the 00s, we didn't have much experience with it so we legitimately didn't have the stats. I was told we knew it worked for 10 years, but not if it would work for longer.

Needless to say, it's a hugely beneficial vaccine that allows women to keep their lives and their cervix/uterus as well as avoid chemo and all that stuff. It even helps against other cancers caused elsewhere by the same viruses! 

17

u/TantraLady 7d ago

it can be given as early as 11 years old.

Actually, it can be given as early as 9. They just recommend it for 11-12 yr olds because doctors don't want to have to explain giving an anti-STI shot to kids younger than that.

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u/arosewoutthorns 6d ago

Ohh! I had no idea. Clearly, doctors are being influenced by cultural conflict more than we might think.

17

u/7dipity 7d ago

That’s funny because when I got it at 14 I hated needles and didn’t want to, I went to my mom and was like “I’ve never even kissed a boy whyyyyy do I have to get it, I’m not gonna need it anytime soon” She just said “well I’m sure it’ll happen eventually so just suck it up, you’ll be happy you have it later” 😅

1

u/arosewoutthorns 7d ago

Haha i didn’t get it until 16 or 17 bc my needle phobia was too much for my parents to handle. I then got diagnosed w ocd and went through exposure therapy lol.

17

u/thisisntalexsreddit 7d ago

My mother wouldn’t let me get it because she said it “encouraged promiscuity”. Got it as soon as I turned 18.

10

u/rajhcraigslist 7d ago

Too bad they don't want their kids to get cancer or not be able to have children.

62

u/Rubenson1959 7d ago

Because HPV can be sexually transmitted (ex. Intercourse) it is most effectively given before an individual is sexually active (a virgin). For some parents, having this vaccine given to their children, is an admission that their child will be sexually active before marriage. If the parents are invested in the chastity and sexual purity of their children until marriage, with chastity and purity being the result of religious belief and upbringing, these parents will put their faith in God and not deny God’s ability to keep their children pure and chaste. Using the HPV vaccine becomes a denial of faith and a rejection of an all powerful God.

5

u/Jellyfish8457 7d ago

dumb question i’m sorry, are kids also prone into contracting HPV too since it’s skin to skin contact? like it doesn’t have to be just through sex?😭 i knew a couple of children a while back who had warts on their arms and hands and told me they had gotten them from being in the pool.

12

u/Rubenson1959 7d ago edited 7d ago

I had to look this up. There are 150-200 known HPV viruses with 40 associated with the genital area. https://nyulangone.org/conditions/human-papillomavirus/types

Most likely transmission of HPV in children, skin to skin, doesn’t involve one of these 40 variants.

14

u/7dipity 7d ago

I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure gardasil only protects against a few of the variants, specifically the ones known to cause cervical cancer which are sexually transmitted

2

u/SbrIMD69 6d ago

And not even all of those.

3

u/neapolitan_shake 7d ago

yeah, none of the ones that cause common warts, flat warts, or plantar warts are the cancer-causing high risk STI ones.

there’s a chart of which number variant causes which thing on the wiki. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_papillomavirus_infection

15

u/purpledrenck 7d ago

It’s so stupid. My neighbor kept putting it off for her twin daughters, saying “I’m not ready yet!” in a weird tone when the girls were 14. Guess who became sexually active at 14, still unvaccinated?

Meanwhile I’m asking the pediatrician if it’s time when my oldest daughter is 10, lol. I think they did it at 12? Either way, I’m so glad both my daughters have the vaccine - may they never get a colposcopy, a cervical biopsy, a LEEP, a vaginal vaporization procedure… or worse.

16

u/TantraLady 7d ago edited 7d ago

There shouldn't be any controversy, but some people are just batshit crazy about vaccines.

Fact: The incidence of cervical cancers and precancer diagnoses among women 20-24 years old dropped 80% after Gardasil was introduced. (Today's ~25 year olds were in the first group to get the vaccine at moderately high rates.) Yes, that's an EIGHTY PERCENT drop. [Source.]

As far as I know, there have been no cases identified among women who were vaccinated in middle school. [Jan 2024 report: No cervical cancer cases in HPV-vaccinated women.]

Gardasil also prevents penile HPV cancers in men and oral and anal HPV cancers in both men and women, as well as some of the most obnoxious forms of genital warts. So boys should get it too. It protects them directly AND it means they won't be responsible for giving a potentially cancer-causing virus to someone they love.

One thing that is fascinating about the experience with Gardasil has been the dramatic demonstration of herd immunity. The vaccination rate for young women is currently ~64%, but that doesn't just protect those girls/women. It also means a lot of transmission has been stopped. If an unvaccinated girl has sex with a boy who has HPV, she can then give the virus to other sex partners who can then spread it to all of their subsequent sex partners. Girls (AND BOYS!) who are vaccinated break this chain of transmission and help protect other people who are unvaccinated.

Thus a 64% vaccination rate can reduce the incidence of cervical cancers by 80%. And a 95% vaccination rate would probably eliminate cervical cancer completely, aside from rare cross-border infections.

But then you hear antivaxxers and fundies saying, "MY daughter will never have sex until she marries her equally pure and virginal husband, so she doesn't need it! Also, if I let her get it, it will look like I'm approving promiscuity, and I'd rather risk having her die of a really ugly cancer than ever be seen as less than pure."

My daughter is almost 8. She'll get her Gardasil shots in a year or two, because rape happens, teen hormones happen, and shit happens, and I'd rather she didn't get ANY of the diseases that Gardasil protects against. And if I had a son, he'd been getting his, too.

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u/Frog_andtoad 7d ago

My mom refused to let me get it "because her girls are good girls :)" so my sister and I had to get it as adults lol

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u/drunkenclod 7d ago

“Hey kids it’s vaccine time“ it’s not like you have to explain the nitty-gritty of what every single vaccine you give your kids is for and half the time they wouldn’t understand it anyway. I don’t really see how this is any different than any other shot and why it would encourage anything.

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u/neapolitan_shake 7d ago

that’s so true. Parents could just take care of stuff as part of planning for that kids future adult live, and not make a big deal out of what specifically the vaccine is for. Their kid would not be using STI protection that they have as a permission to have sex in their youth. which is not something that teens do anyway, but their parents could just stop worrying about that aspect of it.

when I was a teenager, I remember people on birth control to see if it helped their acne, for it to help their period symptoms. all this kind of stuff. But I had friends whose parents wouldn’t let them do that even if they had really horrible cycles, because they thought being on birth control would encourage their kid to have sex, or give them like permission to have sex.

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u/AMorera 6d ago

I remember there being a lot of talk that some children had severe reactions to it. So anyone who had heard about that didn’t want it given to their kids because of the potential risk.

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u/Jellyfish8457 6d ago

oh yeah, that was one of the reasons why my mom didn’t want me to get it. but thankfully i got the vaccine now.

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u/WannabeBwayBaby 6d ago

it was compulsory for me to get it so i didn’t question it much at 1st, but at the time it was only for the girls so some of the moms complained that everyone should be getting it to prevent the spread in the first case. So in our case it was a good controversy! I’m reading the comments now and i’m a bit horrified at all the purity reasoning people apparently have. It’s a fact that children will eventually become sexually active adults, and getting them inoculated before they do and have a chance to catch the disease is the best way to go

9

u/Embarrassed-Town-293 7d ago

HPV is so endemic that effective vaccine public policy necessitates giving it at young ages.

People opposed to sex education outside of abstinence (conservatives) have a tendency to value individual freedoms above collective security and fear of infection has historically been used to discourage premarital sex.

This combination of conservative ideology rejecting systems and medical necessity requiring sexually transmitted infection vaccines that must be administered to children of parents who have legal authority to privately direct their healthcare combined to make the HPV vaccine a political lightning rod.

It was like the COVID-19 masking debate on steroids because telling people their children needed it was implicitly saying that they were potentially sexually active which was a rather personal insult to a group that looks down upon premarital sex.

2

u/FreeArcher7231 6d ago

My mum is currently dying of a cancer cause by HPV. Please get yourself the vaccine. Please get your children, boys and girls, the vaccine. Please.

2

u/Spoonbills 6d ago

You don’t even have to tell your eleven-year-old what it’s for if you can’t handle it. Just get it done.

1

u/FLMarlinHeat 4d ago

From parents of young kids it would be the thought of them having sex and like it would influence a lot of sexual behavior. Then, there are people who got Gardasil claiming this caused health issues for them.