Some Parents Question Cancer Vaccine

There are two things parents don't like to think about their kids having — sex and cancer. But they're now being forced to discuss both. There's a new vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, a disease that's diagnosed in 10,000 women every year. As CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, this fall, parents must decide whether their daughters should get it or not.

When Dr. Shakha Gillin talks to young patients about the HPV vaccine, she is sometimes met with giggles.

"It also prevents against genital warts," Dr. Gillin tells a young girl.

The awkward innocence of getting a shot is now being injected with just plain awkwardness: pre-teen sex talk.

The vaccine is not a license to be sexually active. It protects girls against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, which causes almost all of cerivcal cancer cases.

Getting the vaccine, a series of three shots, would seem like a no-brainer. But the problem for some parents is the age: Doctors are recommending that girls get the vaccine between ages 9 and 12.

Julia Rogers is 12 years old, and her mother says "it's beyond her developmental stage. It's like asking her to have a Pap smear.".

The Rogers aren't opposed to having their kids vaccinated. In fact, looking at her shot records, Julia has had 21 vaccinations. But for now, they're going to pass on this one.

"I think to have a conversation prior to any interest in the opposite sex is absolutely beyond her developmental stage, and it's inappropriate, to be honest with you," Julia's mother says.

While it's hard for parents to talk about sex while their daughters are still in pigtails, Gillin says it's a necessary conversation about cancer and a vaccine for a disease that kills 4,000 women a year in the United States.

"When you look at what a big deal cervical cancer is, why wait?" Gillin says.

She argues it's possible to preserve a girl's innocence and her health at the same time, that the vaccine is just to keep girls and women safe, and that it's no different than telling a child they need to get a shot for tetanus or a meningitis vaccine.

Crying and shots have always gone together. But this time, the only screaming some parents hear is in their heads.