We've been looking at the vaccine long and hard for our boys. One interesting thing I've read in several places, there's a study showing that women who are vaccinated after they are infected are actually at a higher risk of cancer. If you are going to get the vaccine, seems very important to get before exposure.

Ana - If you are going to make a statement about a study that shows something, please always reference the study. Without doing this, there is no way for people to put weight on the statement.

While this doesn't necessarily apply to you, you would be surprised at the number of posters that will post some bit of information from an unreliable internet source, or a source with an agenda, such as to sell people things, or promote a perspective that is contrary to what peer reviewed papers indicate. We wish to ensure that we are only giving out accurate information.

If I were still "available" I think I would get the vaccine.

Brian, I'm copying below one of the articles I read, which references a FDA study. I'll be sure to include sources in the future. My comment was in reference to Samkl's question about vaccinating those who have already been infected with HPV, which appears to be a more complicated question that vaccinating those who have not.

I wish there was an easy, 100% risk free decision...but such things really don't exist. As the parents of one child who has already had a severe vaccine reaction (MMR, epilepsy), we know first hand the heartache associated with trying to do something to help your child, only to have it result in severe injury. Then on the other side, as I watch my husband fight his way through this horrible cancer, the thought that our sons could end up in the same position 20, 30, 40 years from now is unbearable. We are leaning towards immunizing...but we are doing so know full and well there are real risks involved. If you are going to immunize, it seems better to do so before HPV exposure/infection.

(link removed)

Hi, Ana
I read the article. She does not appear to have any sort of background in statistics from the quality of her analysis. Do you have any idea where she attended college? She styles herself a journalist but I can't find any CV for her online.
Maria

Hi Maria....I hear your points, I do not know the author of the article's background. Let's take her out of the equation, go straight to the FDA source

http://1.usa.gov/bPIdXi

Take a look at page nine, the paragraph titled, History of the HPV DNA Nested PCR Application. That's what caught my attention, in regards to immunizing someone who has already been exposed. Thoughts?

The above source is a petition to the FDA; certainly wouldn't hurt to review it, and see if any additional updates are available.

Admin note added later. A petition to the FDA is just that- a petition. It is not fact, it is not the FDA's position, and it does not include any rebuttal, acceptance, or refusal of acceptance of the information by the FDA. As a stand alone document is has little value except to say that some individual ( no credentials required) took the time to petition the FDA with this document. While many of these come from responsible researchers, some from clinicians not directly connected to the research, or from the same area of expertise, some also come from the public. Giving the same weight to all would be erroneous.

Hmmn, every citation and link is already Five years old, You would have thought this misinformation would have been corrected by now. Although how could anyone doubt the analytical abilities and statistical competence of the article by Cynthia with such an impressive resume that she has on her web pages.
[quote]Cynthia Janak is a freelance journalist, mother of three, foster mother of one, grandmother of five, business owner, Chamber of Commerce member. Her expertise is as an administrative professional. Her specialties are adoptee and genealogy research and research journalism. Hobbies: Writing prose, crocheting, Conservative Studies, and rehabbing houses. [/quote]But hey, how about a 2012 Forbes article that Ms Janak just mocked a few weeks ago
Forbes debunks Guardisil alarmists
In a nutshell, this excerpt explains why the alarmist 2007 article posted is just wrong
[quote]By the same token, VAERS can�t correlate HPV vaccines with cervical dysplasia, let alone establish a cause-effect relationship, especially when the incidence of cervical dysplasias in the vaccinated population isn�t different than in the population at large. This doesn�t mean that VAERS is a useless, lousy database, it just illustrates how uncritically using a database to probe questions it wasn�t designed or executed to address can lead you in exactly the wrong direction.[/quote]
I admit I am biased againt Ms Janak since she is a prominent spokesperson for the anti vaccine movement. In fairness, she is against all vacines, not just the HPV vaccine so at least her worldview is consistent. Also her latest article laments the "mainstream media" I am not going to link to any of her crazy posts, article or website on vaccines as it pollutes OCF IMO. Believe it or not, she actually publishes articles with titles like : [quote]Why do we get sick after vaccination or medication?[/quote]
Please, please can we have discussions on HPV and vaccines not based on conspiracy theories or woo woo columnists who cannot even understand basic statistical analysis?
Charm

Oh, and let's not forget about the bogus FDA petition. I mean the petition is real but the allegations in it are bogus. These were just statements made by a guy trying to push a new product he developed. The FDA rejected his petition and he sued. You can read at detail all the things this guy had done wrong and why the courts did not back him up.
motion to dismis
Now lets go to "Dr Sin Hang Lee, MD," the person who cooked up the numbers that are so scary and see what he has been up
Crazy is as Crazy does Oh, he has sued the FDA a couple more times - keeps losing; denounces the New England Journal of Medicine, but apparently has behaved himself the last two years.
Yeah, not quite my go to guy for medical advice.
so yes, this guy did write all that stuff in the FDA petition which was denied by the FDA and every judge who looked at it.
Please, please, don't post stuff like this here on OCF
Charm

Maria, thank you for pointing that out, I will do some more digging around to see if there is any more information. I've found your posts, informative and non knee-jerk judgemental, very helpful as we process this informaiton. With a newly diagnosed husband, an older teen son for who we need to make this decision asap and a younger son who had a huge reaction/injury to MMR (epilepsy), it's very helpful to have a reasonable voice in this discussion as we weight all viewpoints, thank you, Ana