Will You Give Your Teen Gardasil?

There has been plenty of talk about parents not wanting to give their teenage girls Gardasil, which is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics as protection against cervical cancer and genital warts caused by HPV, or the human papillomavirus. Up until now, most parents worried about the moral issue of giving their 11 and 12-year old daughters a vaccine that has to do with sex.

However, many parents are holding back with the vaccine, not because of moral issues, but because they fear what the drug’s side effects will be. The drug is, after all, new, and they fear that we don’t know everything about it yet that we need to. So even though the recommended age for the vaccine is starting with 11-12 year olds, some moms are waiting until the later teen years.

What do you think about this decision? Will you wait or get your daughters vaccinated now?

Image: Zuma Press