HPV vaccination during early pregnancy does not increase adverse risks

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is recommended for all girls and women aged 9–26 years of age. However, little is known about the safety of the vaccination if inadvertently given during early pregnancy.

To find out more, a team of researchers assessed a cohort of all the women in Denmark whose pregnancy ended between 1 October 2006 and 30 November 2013. Women who had had vaccine exposure during that time were matched for propensity score in a 1:4 ratio with women who had not had exposure to a vaccine during that time.

From the results, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine
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(30 March 2017), the researchers concluded that exposure to the quadrivalent HPV vaccine was not associated with a significantly higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as major birth defects, spontaneous abortion or low birth weight than no exposure to the vaccine.