Most medical organizations have strongly advocated using the HPV vaccine Gardasil for girls 11 and 12 years old. But an editorial to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine has outlined some serious concerns about the vaccine.

First, Gardasil's long-term effectiveness is unclear. And because cervical cancer takes years to develop, critics say the current information is insufficient to determine whether Gardasil works.

Gardasil is also expensive, costing about $400 to $1,000 for the necessary three doses of the vaccine, and the vaccine only protects against some of the viruses that cause cervical cancer.

There is also the issue of side effects. FDA records reveal that, since Gardasil's approval, nearly 9,000 girls had "bad health events" after receiving their shots.