The human papillomavirus vaccinum ( HPV ) is offered to girls before they bump off their teens to prevent the spreadhead of the STI , which can – in some cases – cause cervical cancer , venereal wart , and other Cancer .
study so far have shown that these national vaccination programme have prove to bea remarkable succeeder . Yet , some people are concerned that they may be having another consequence . That is , they might encourage teenage girls to be more sexually light and engage in wild sexual behaviors .
A study of late published in theCanadian Medical Association Journal(CMAJ ) has shown that these fears are completely baseless . In fact , if anything , the sexual behavior of adolescent girl have become quite a routine safe since the introduction of the vaccination program – at least in Canada .
The Canadian responsibility of British Columbia introduced a publicly fund routine HPV vaccination program in 2008 for girls in grades 6 ( 10 to 11 years old ) and 9 ( 13 and 14 years old ) . In its very first year , take - up rates were 61.8 percent among those in course 6 and 62.1 percent among those in grade 9 . Two years later and rates had increased to 68.8 pct among girls in grade 6 . By this point , it was no longer available for little girl in level 9 .
To study the burden of the program on teenage sexual behavior , research worker from the University of British Columbia examine data from the 2003 , 2008 , and 2013 BC Adolescent Health Survey , a comprehensive universe - base questionnaire taken once every five years by students in gradation 7 to 12 ( 11 to 17 years old ) . scholarly person were asked ( anonymously ) whether or not they had ever had sexuality and further questions on their sexual behavior , like whether they took unwritten contraception and how many intimate married person they had had .
The response of 298,265 girl were included in the study , all of whom describe their gender as either heterosexual , unsure , inquiring , or without attractions . ( Girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual person will be include in a disjoined study . ) Only those in the final survey ( 2013 ) would have been offered the HPV vaccine .
So , what did the researchers get hold ? First , the figure of girls self - reporting being sexually active declined . The number of girl who reported ever having had sex was 21.3 percent in 2003 . This dropped to 20.6 percentage in 2008 and to 18.3 percent in 2013 . There were also few girls having sex before eld 14 .
Not only were the younger cohort less sexually alive , but those that were hold sex come out to be doing so more safely . The use of condoms and unwritten contraception has increased over prison term , from 65.6 percent ( 2003 ) to 68.9 ( 2013 ) in the casing of the former . The phone number of teenage girls on the nascence control lozenge increase by 9.4 percent between the first and 2nd survey .
The researchers also launch that pregnancy rates reject dramatically ( 42 percent ) between 2003 and 2013 , while there was no pregnant variety in the number of intimate cooperator report .
As the study authors excuse , these results seem to mirror globular trends towards safe gender practices , even in countries without a state - fund vaccination plan for HPV .
It is , therefore , hard to tell whether or not the safer intimate deportment are the event of the vaccine , improved intimate education in school , better admission to information about sex ( read : the net ) , or something else altogether ( or perhaps a combination of all the above ) . succeeding studies will hopefully furnish more clarification as the team intend to add a self - report question on HPV inoculation status in succeeding surveys .
