The HPV Vaccine Doesn’t Deserve Its Reputation. Get This for Your Kids.
We have a vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer. It’s just as safe as any other vaccine, and it’s easy for your son or teenage daughter – or yourself if you’re in your early twenties – to get it. Don’t buy into fake disclosures of “dangers” that don’t really exist.
HPV , the human papillomavirus, comes in many different types, some of which cause cancer of the cervix, throat, and other parts of the body. Some cause genital warts. The vaccine protects up to nine types of the virus.
But the HPV vaccine has an image problem and it is multifaceted. There are false claims that it causes serious health problems in girls who have been vaccinated. There is also a myth that the vaccine encourages children to have sex. Doctors have become embarrassed to even talk about the vaccine, reporting that they expect conversations with their parents to be uncomfortable . As a result, less than half of adolescents receive all three doses of the vaccine, a vaccine that has no major safety issues and prevents cancer.
Why the HPV vaccine is so important
Human papillomaviruses cause several cancers , including cervical cancer, which kills 4,000 women every year. They also cause cancer of the anus, penis, and throat in both men and women, and some types cause genital warts instead of cancer. While most viruses multiply, turning cells into viral factories and then killing them, HPV makes itself larger by causing cells to divide. If the immune system doesn’t stop this process, the result will be a wart or swelling. (A related virus causes rabbits to grow horns . Nature is strange.)
Most people get the HPV virus even if they don’t develop cancer: 80% of 50-year-old women have it at some point in their lives . (This is probably just as common in men.) The virus is lazy and takes years to go from infection to cancer. In most cases, the immune system kills the virus within a year or two , and no harm occurs.
But if the virus lingers, it could cause cancer decades later. This is why screening is so important. One way is a Pap smear to look for abnormal cells caused by the virus on a woman’s cervix . (The cervix is where the uterus and vagina meet.) Cancer or precancerous changes are treatable if found early. Because the virus multiplies very slowly, screening with a combined Pap smear and HPV test is sufficient every 3-5 years .
If the woman continues screening, it is highly unlikely that she will develop cancer that could kill her. But not everyone is screened as often as they should , and there is no screening for other cancers that HPV can cause, including in men. This is why the vaccine makes so much sense. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)recommends the vaccine for boys and girls starting around age 11.
HPV vaccine does not encourage children to have sex
This is a sexually transmitted disease vaccine and is recommended for children. From a medical point of view, this makes sense: you get the vaccine before you are exposed to the virus. If you wait until you’re, say, 17 years old (the average age at which people first have sex), it would be too late.
Any connection between children and sex makes many people nervous . But the HPV vaccine doesn’t make 11-year-olds think, “Great, I’m going to have sex now!” no more than the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth forces newborns to leave the house and inject drugs with shared needles. A 2012 pediatric study confirmed that girls who received the HPV vaccine were not more likely to have sex than their peers who received other vaccines.
However, parents do not like to think about their children having sex. In another study published in Pediatrics , 17% of parents who refused the HPV vaccine said their child did not need it. But half of adolescents have had sex by age 17, 16% by age 15, and 2% by age 12. These numbers come from a survey that also drew the dire conclusion that 11% of first sexual encounters were “unwanted.”
I don’t expect you to stand in a doctor’s office and think about how likely your son or daughter will be raped, and whether this will affect their chances of getting cancer in middle age. All I’m saying is that the HPV vaccine should be routine, like the meningitis and tetanus / diphtheria / pertussis vaccines they get at about the same age. If your doctor doesn’t suggest, take a step forward and ask for it.
Side Effects Controversy Unscientific Is Bloated For The Eyes
The latest deadlock came from Irish television channel TV3 , which aired a special this week about girls with health problems they said stemmed from the HPV vaccine. Stories like these make headlines for rare cases that may not even have anything to do with the vaccine, while ignoring the vast amount of vaccine safety research.
The special was made in partnership with an Irish group that calls itself “Gardasil’s Extreme Trauma Reactions and Effects” – right, I’m sorry. Their Testimonials of Regret page is filled with heartbreaking stories: teenagers with cryptic symptoms, often including cramps and fatigue, visits to doctors and alternative medicine specialists who have no long-term solutions. There are similar groups in the US spreading stories of young women who got sick after being vaccinated.
But that’s not proof of the problem. With these stories, you can act out logical fallacy infographics like a bingo card. Some medical problems are idiopathic and have no easy-to-explain cause, and that doesn’t mean you can blame whatever comes to your mind for them.
If a vaccine is indeed causing problems, such observations will be one of the first indications that something is wrong, but it will take a lot of human studies to show if there is a connection. This is why the US government maintains a VAERS database where anyone can register an “adverse event” – essentially any bad event – that occurs after vaccination. Vaccine opponents often point to VAERS as proof that vaccines are dangerous, but that is not what the reports mean. From the FAQ on the VAERS website :
The fact that an adverse event occurred after a person received the vaccine does not mean that the vaccine caused the adverse event. Other factors, such as the person’s medical history and other medications the person took shortly before vaccination, could have caused the adverse event. It is important to remember that many of the adverse events reported to VAERS may not be caused by vaccines.
Such sensational anecdotes are part of the big picture. Earlier this year, the Toronto Star newspaper published a similar misguided “investigation” of the vaccine. Vox’s Julia Bellouse summoned them and they gave up on the story . In 2013, Katie Couric devoted an episode of her show to the same issue. Couric later admitted that the show spent too much time fueling fears and not enough time to communicate that the benefits of the shot clearly outweighed its risks.
The University of Michigan Risk Research Center has a handy video explaining this calculation:
We know the risks are very low because they are well understood. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal recently published an analysis covering 15 studies, involving more than a million people. Serious side effects such as autoimmune diseases, blood clots, and strokes were no more common in vaccinated people than in those who did not receive the vaccine. Side effects, which are more common in vaccinated people, are minor, which can occur with any vaccine, such as fainting and skin reactions at the injection site. (Teenagers sometimes pass out after injections , and we don’t fully understand why.)
Nothing in life can be guaranteed “safe,” but vaccines come close. The risks are very small, and the benefits clearly outweigh them for almost everyone. The usual advice “talk to your doctor” applies — for example, if you are pregnant or are allergic to any component of the vaccine, it may not work for you.
Look, data and research is important and trustworthy, but it can be tricky when we’re talking about your son or daughter. Just know that the vast majority of data accumulated over the decades says it is safe and that it prevents cancer, which we know is fatal later in life . The best gift for a daughter or son cannot be given.
Illustration by Tara Jacoby.
Vitals is a Lifehacker health and fitness blog. Follow us on Twitter here .