Doctors Call Claims That Gardasil Caused Sisters' Infertility Bogus

[cali]

Two Wisconsin women are in federal court today, alleging that Gardasil caused them to go into early menopause and become infertile, but doctors say such claims aren't rooted in science.

Madelyne and Olivia Meylor, of Mount Horeb, Wis., claim that the vaccine against cancer-causing human papillomavirus, or HPV, caused primary ovarian failure in both of them. The sisters are 20 and 19 years old, respectively.

"There is nothing about this particular vaccine that would make this at all plausible," said Dr. Kim Gecsi, who directs the ob/gyn clerkship program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. "There is nothing hormonal in Gardasil or anything anti-hormonal in Gardasil -- nothing that should encourage the body to stop producing ovarian hormones."

<snip>

The vaccines against HPV appear to be working, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that a single dose cuts HPV risk by 82 percent. Since the arrival of HPV vaccines -- Gardasil and Cervarix -- HPV infection rates among girls aged 14 to 16 have dropped by 56 percent, according to the study.

<snip>
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/doctors-call-claims-gardasil-caused-sisters-infertility-bogus/story?id=20830299

[csziggy]

1. K&R

[Ms. Toad]

2. Except that the doctors

(1) aren't experts in the field appropriate to the allegations
(2) didn't address the allegations

Here are the statements from the doctors:

"There is nothing about this particular vaccine that would make this at all plausible," said Dr. Kim Gecsi, who directs the ob/gyn clerkship program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. "There is nothing hormonal in Gardasil or anything anti-hormonal in Gardasil -- nothing that should encourage the body to stop producing ovarian hormones."

"We've not found any reason to believe there's a cause-effect relationship" between the vaccine and ovarian failure, Grabenstein said.

"Since this is not a recognized adverse effect, the judges will have to make a decision about that," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. "There's no scientific basis for it."

The claim is that the adjuvants added to the vaccine to alter how the immune system responded to the virus in order to provoke an adequate immune response was a trigger for an autoimmune disorder to which the women were predisposed. Specialists qualified to address the concerns raised would be in epigenetics or microbiology, not gyns or preventative medicine on the infectious disease side (Dr. Schaffner's experties - according to his online bios). Epigenetics may well become the ultimate in preventative medicine in the future, but from a different part of the field than infectious disease part.

Here are some background links to the real issues in the case: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014643048#post7

[Barack_America]

3. The real culprit is most likely the Fragile X premutation.

http://genetics.emory.edu/docs/factsheet46.pdf

[HuckleB]

4. And science says....

Not bloody likely that the vaccine caused this.

http://shotofprevention.com/2013/08/20/why-some-parents-are-refusing-hpv-vaccine-for-their-children/