Misconception: human papillomavirus vaccine and infertility

This study sought to determine if parents of males express concerns about vaccine-associated infertility (VAI) with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and to understand the impact of those concerns.

Parents of sons were surveyed to determine VAI concerns. Logistic regression was used to find if parents worried about VAI had lower knowledge of HPV disease, more concern for side effects, lacked information about vaccination, or had lower intention to vaccinate.

In all, 39% of parents were worried about VAI. Parents worried about VAI had similar knowledge of HPV compared with other parents. Parents worried about VAI had twice the odds of agreeing the vaccine may cause side effects and agreeing they did not have enough information compared to their counterparts. Parents worried about VAI less often intended to vaccinate sons than other parents.

These findings suggest many parents worry about VAI in sons with HPV vaccine.