Demand for cervical cancer vaccine soars, docs say

PHOENIX — Doctors say they are seeing a spike in the number of females between the ages of 9 and 26 that are using Gardasil to guard against cervical cancer.

“We seem to be giving more Gardasil vaccines this year,” says Dr. Stefanie Schroeder, of the Arizona State University Campus Health Service in Tempe. “Women have started the series at home and are coming to us for their second or third booster.”

Gardasil is the first vaccine to prevent cancer caused by human papillomavirus virus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. It protects against four types of the virus: 6, 11, 16, and 18, with types 6 and 11 resulting in genital warts and types 16 and 18 resulting in cervical cancer, doctors say.

Dr. Emily Cyr of Central Phoenix Women’s Health says women should seek medical help to detect cervical cancer early because the effects can be horrible if discovered too late.

“Anything that decreases the risk for cervical cancer is a good thing,” Cyr says. “Gardasil can do that.”

But Gardasil is still a new vaccine. Doctors say its protection lasts anywhere from 24 months to 10 years.

So what is the incentive for young females to get it?

Jacqueline Agenbroad, nurse practitioner at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, says mothers who have had the HPV virus support the vaccine because they do not want their daughters to contract it.

“Just because nobody is for sure how long Gardasil will last has not changed a woman’s reliability on the product,” Agenbroad says. “Personally, I am seeing an increase in the number of females getting the vaccine.”

Schroeder says another reason people support the vaccine is the decrease in incidence of cervical cancer and in the amount of colposcopies necessary after an abnormal Pap smear.

Gardasil has received a lot of positive publicity, doctors say. However, it has also raised some questions for people. The vaccine is strictly for females between the ages of 9 and 26; but for some, 9 years old seems a little young for an STD-related vaccine.

Some parents oppose having their daughters vaccinated because they think it will lead to promiscuity, doctors say.

“Sex. It has something to do with that three-letter-word,” Agenbroad says. “Parents think girls will use Gardasil as a type of birth control and go out and have sex.”

The age at which females are experiencing their first sexual encounter has been decreasing every year as well, doctors say.

“Coiarche, or the age at first sexual contact, is getting younger,” Schroeder said. “The thought is to protect women as early as possible and to have immunity by the time of their first sexual contact.”

Gardasil’s target age group was chosen based on lab testing, doctors say. It is a recombinant vaccine that takes a small portion of the HPV virus and combines it with other solutions to change its form, Agenbroad says. Nurses administer it as three injections over a course of six months, with minor side effects, doctors say.

“Gardasil will prevent subtypes of HPV to invade the body and thereby prevent the development of cervical cancer,” Schroeder says.

Interior design major, Amy Lundwall, 20, just received the first out of three shots.

“We get shots to prevent other diseases when we are younger,” Lundwall says. “So why not get one to prevent cervical cancer?”

Schroeder says about 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year in the United States, and Gardasil is the only vaccine to effectively prevent this form of cancer.

The number of females getting vaccinated has been increasing, leaving more people aware of the serious outcomes of cervical cancer, and preventing females from getting cervical cancer in the future, doctors say.

“If my daughter was that age, I would have her get it,” Agenbroad says. “If I was that age, I would get it, and I will definitely see that my granddaughters get it.”

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