Vaccines for STDs

I’m sure you all have seen a commercial for GARDASIL, the recent vaccine to immunize girls ages 9-26 against the human papillomavirus. The virus is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts.

The commercials always show a mother and daughter doing something fun together and talking about being “one less” woman with cervical cancer. The mother and daughter pair always look like they are having such a great time getting this vaccine and bonding over the threat of an STD.

But each time I see these commercials, I think about what a tough choice that must be for mothers. My daughter is only 2 years old, so I’m hoping we’ll have lots of information about GARDASIL by the time I have to make the decision whether to get her the vaccine or not.

A friend of mine thinks every girl should get the vaccine, whether or not they are sexually active. Her argument is that as a member of society, it’s everyone’s obligation to guard against certain diseases. Plus, teenagers often lie about their sexual activity.

I don’t think it’s that simple. What if your daughter says she is not sexually active? It could do a lot of damage to a mother-daughter relationship to force her to get the vaccine “just in case.” That’s like saying, “Yes, honey, I trust you 100 percent, but just in the chance that you are a total liar, you need to get the vaccine anyway.”

That could seriously hurt the trust in what are usually already shaky parent-teen relationships.

Also, if a teenage girl is trying to abstain from sex, I wonder if requiring her to get a vaccine for an STD would give her just one more reason to give up her ideals and just have sex anyway. If mom doesn’t even think I can hold out, why should I?

But then again, how heartbreaking would it be to watch your daughter get cervical cancer because you were too worried about being the bad guy?

What do you think — Would you get the GARDASIL vaccine for your daughter? Why or why not?