Moms Talk: Will your daughter receive the HPV vaccine?

A few years ago, a new shot was added to the regimen of available childhood immunizations: the vaccine that fights the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, a disease with strains that can lead to cervical cancer.

Sounds like a good news medical breakthrough to me, something that I’ll definitely be asking our family doctor about once my daughter turns 11, which is the recommended age range for the first dose of the three-shot series. But a report out last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that not everyone is lining their kids up for this potentially life-saving preventative measure.

According to a story by the Los Angeles Times, there was actually a small, 4 percent year-to-year increase in the number of teenage girls getting the HPV vaccine, leading to a total of 49 percent of girls getting vaccinated. It sounds good, until you compare that to much bigger increases in the percentage of girls who got other vaccines, such as the 13 percent increase to 69 percent in those who received the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, and a 9 percent increase to 63 percent for meningococcal meningitis vaccine.

Even worse news is that girls who are black, Hispanic or live in poverty—three groups that have higher rates of cervical cancer—were even less likely to get the HPV vaccine than their peers.

The story doesn’t offer any explanations as to why the HPV lags behind many others in acceptance. I can hazard a couple completely uneducated and anecdotal guesses, such as the fact that it’s a relatively new vaccine and plenty of people are concerned about vaccine safety as it is, let alone a new shot whose safety they may feel is unproven.

(I’ll point out here a second vaccine-related news story from last week that says once again, research has proven that vaccines do not cause autism despite a widespread fear that that is the case.)

Another guess of mine is that perhaps girls from poorer families don’t have access to comprehensive health care that would cover the HPV vaccine. But I wonder if some parents are holding back on getting the vaccine for their girls out of the stigma associated with the sexual transmission of HPV—that their young daughters don’t need a vaccine for an STD-borne disease when they aren’t yet sexually active.

To my logic, that’s nonsense. It’s a safe bet that all children will grow up to become adults who have sex—and that’s not to say I’m not 100 percent behind one day hammering home to my kids the notion that waiting a really, really, extra long time to have sex is absolutely the right thing to do. But as parents we can’t put our heads in the sand over something that makes us uncomfortable when the health of our children is at stake.