HPV shots don't make girls promiscuous, study says
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CHICAGO (AP) - Shots that protect against cervical cancer do not make girls promiscuous, according to the first study to compare medical records for vaccinated and unvaccinated girls.
The researchers didn't ask girls about having sex, but instead looked at "markers" of sexual activity after vaccination against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. Specifically, they examined up to three years of records on whether girls had sought birth control advice; tests for sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy; or had become pregnant.
Very few of the girls who got the shots at age 11 or 12 had done any of those over the next three years, or by the time they were 14 or 15. Moreover, the study found no difference in rates of those markers compared with unvaccinated girls.
The study involved nearly 1,400 girls enrolled in a Kaiser Permanente health plan in Atlanta. Results were published online Monday in Pediatrics.
Whether vaccination has any influence on similar markers of sexual activity in older teens wasn't examined in this study but other research has suggested it doesn't.
The study is the first to use medical outcomes data to examine consequences of HPV vaccination and the results are "comforting and reassuring," said lead author Robert Bednarczyk, a researcher at Kaiser and Emory University. Both institutions paid for the study.
HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer and also has been linked with anal and oral cancers in women and men.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend HPV shots for girls and boys at age 11 or 12, before they have ever had sex. Three doses are generally recommended over six months.
Some parents have raised concerns that the shots "are a license to have sex," but the study bolsters evidence against that concern, said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City. She was not involved in the study.
A CDC study published in January suggested that the shots don't promote sexual activity among older girls, but it relied on self-reporting, at ages 15 to 24. That's a less reliable method than the new study, Alderman said. She has been a paid speaker for Merck & Co., which makes one of the two HPV vaccines sold in the United States, but said she has no current financial ties to the company.
In the new study, at least 90 percent of vaccinated and unvaccinated girls did not seek pregnancy tests, chlamydia tests or birth control counseling, markers that were considered surrogates for sexual activity during up to three years of follow-up. Two in each group became pregnant. Chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted disease, was diagnosed in one vaccinated girl and three unvaccinated girls.
Three of the study's four co-authors reported having done previous research funded by Merck.
The researchers didn't ask girls about having sex, but instead looked at "markers" of sexual activity after vaccination against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. Specifically, they examined up to three years of records on whether girls had sought birth control advice; tests for sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy; or had become pregnant.
Very few of the girls who got the shots at age 11 or 12 had done any of those over the next three years, or by the time they were 14 or 15. Moreover, the study found no difference in rates of those markers compared with unvaccinated girls.
The study involved nearly 1,400 girls enrolled in a Kaiser Permanente health plan in Atlanta. Results were published online Monday in Pediatrics.
Whether vaccination has any influence on similar markers of sexual activity in older teens wasn't examined in this study but other research has suggested it doesn't.
The study is the first to use medical outcomes data to examine consequences of HPV vaccination and the results are "comforting and reassuring," said lead author Robert Bednarczyk, a researcher at Kaiser and Emory University. Both institutions paid for the study.
HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer and also has been linked with anal and oral cancers in women and men.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend HPV shots for girls and boys at age 11 or 12, before they have ever had sex. Three doses are generally recommended over six months.
Some parents have raised concerns that the shots "are a license to have sex," but the study bolsters evidence against that concern, said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City. She was not involved in the study.
A CDC study published in January suggested that the shots don't promote sexual activity among older girls, but it relied on self-reporting, at ages 15 to 24. That's a less reliable method than the new study, Alderman said. She has been a paid speaker for Merck & Co., which makes one of the two HPV vaccines sold in the United States, but said she has no current financial ties to the company.
In the new study, at least 90 percent of vaccinated and unvaccinated girls did not seek pregnancy tests, chlamydia tests or birth control counseling, markers that were considered surrogates for sexual activity during up to three years of follow-up. Two in each group became pregnant. Chlamydia, a common sexually transmitted disease, was diagnosed in one vaccinated girl and three unvaccinated girls.
Three of the study's four co-authors reported having done previous research funded by Merck.
So, what's worse? Your daughter having premarital sex? Or not having premarital sex but then catching HPV from her husband (who did) and ends up dying of cancer?
Some parents have raised concerns that the shots "are a license to have sex," - I would tell these parents to do their part as a parent and teach them it's not. Quit relying on someone else to instill morals in your kids.
Saying the shots make girls promiscuous smacks of some sort of Taliban-Evangelical nutjob bs made up to put women at more health risks, glad they did a study to debunk it. The war on women by the far right needs to stop.
 @Citizen#3457899654 LOL paranoid much?
 @Barlion  @Citizen#3457899654 "Paranoid much"? Do the words transvaginal ultrasound or legitimate rape mean anything to you?
Sounds like something Michelle Bachmann would make up out of thin air and pass along as "fact".
HPV doesn't make girls promiscuous, Ron does.
This was a worthless study. What they should be concentrating on are the scads of stories of health problems and severe reactions related to gardasil. The initial research, point to long term adverse health seems to have been swept under the table, and what of the reports of some women experiencing "Lou Gehrig's disease" like symptoms?Â
I am glad I don't have a daughter and have to make this decision.
@takncarabizniz Stop listening to Michelle Bachmann.
 @Superman_1967  @takncarabizniz These symptoms are well documented outside Bachmanns ramblings.
Hey, everyone needs a job in Obama world even if its one that makes little sense and has no real purpose than spending monies..
Why would even the dimmest dolt think that a vaccine would make a girl promiscuous? Â <eyeroll>
 @Doxie Its pretty much on the level of thinking spoons made Rosie Odonnell fat and angry.Â
 @SeattleJoe LOLOL!
@Doxie I was wondering the same thing. Stupid.
To even suggest that girls would be so simple minded as to sleep around more just because they're vaccinated is purely insulting to girls and women everywhere. Whoever thought this in the first place and made this study necessary are lunatics. It's rather offensive whether you're female or not.
I can't believe money was wasted on this. Â Who would even think this was a possibility? Â 12-year-olds are going to start jumping in the sack because they've been vaccinated against HPV?? Â Beyond silly. Â At least it wasn't NIH-funded.
 @belsnickles Michelle Bachmann and her merry band of Taligelicals like the AFA believe this will turn your daughter in an instaslut...
 @unobtanium  @belsnickles I have to thank you..had a BRUTAL two weeks..Taligelicals and instaslut made me Laugh, coffee all over..DANG IT!! LOL!
@unobtanium @belsnickles - Yeah she is a nut job - Although I am fiscally conservative I am socially left and most of these politicians are grasping for the small percentage of undecided voters and conjure up angles such as this. It's terrifying we can't find one man or woman to put in charge of this once great nation that is briliant with math and balanced socially.
 @alildifferent  @unobtanium  @belsnickles This EXACTLY sums up my own feelings on the political landscape, federal and otherwise.  My mother is 84 and a life-long resident of California, which, as we all know, is pretty much in the toilet financially.  We were discussing state politics the other day and she said, "You know what California needs?  Politicians who can do math." Â
Noooooooooo, Immunizing your child with Gardasil does not make her become sexually active or promote promiscuity any more than a Polio vaccine would make you want to book a flight to Nigeria so that you could be exposed to Polio (due to an equally idiotic rationalization by Nigerian Muslims that it will sterilize its female population). A woman cannot guarantee that her partner has not been exposed to HPV (Human papillomavirus) even if she is chaste. Therefore, she should be vaccinated.
They needed a study? Thinking that these shots lead to promiscuity is beyond ridiculous.
"HPV shots don't make girls promiscuous, study says" What a ridiculous statement.
@maesmaze What's even more ridiculous is that there are people that choose not to have their daughters vaccinated because of that fear. It's just mind blowing, how ignorant we can still choose to be.
 @amr201  @maesmaze Its a vaccine against an std. If the girl isn't sleeping around she doesn't need it. The less crap you pump into your body the better. If you don't need it don't get it. If you do, then get it.