Gardasil: Will You Vaccinate Your Child?

If you are the parent of a young girl or teenager, you have probably had to think about this question:

As a parent, do you choose to vaccinate your child with Gardasil?

Gardasil is a vaccine against four types of the HPV or Human Papillomavirus, two of which cause some cervical cancers and two of which cause the most genital wars. That's what I am reading anyway. I think the "facts" depend on where you are reading this information and the opinion of the person or organization posting it.

There is a big debate/controversy over this vaccine. Is the debate over the fact that this is a new vaccine or is it because the "S" word comes into the equation (you know, S-E-X, and no parent wants to believe their child is going to have sex before they get married and contract HPV as a result...yeah right and I'm the same size 2 I was before I had kids!).

So I am doing some research because my husband and I are going to have to make this decision for our oldest daughter very soon and the rest of our children as well eventually. Here is some of what I am finding. Is it truth? I don't know what the truth is...yet. I do plan to find out.

HPV includes more than 100 different strains of the virus, 30 of which are sexually transmitted, affecting both males and females.

You can carry this virus in your system, infecting others, without showing symptoms yourself.

Some of these strains can cause cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus, and penis. These are the high risk strains.