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"When I first heard about the Gardasil vaccine I was actually reading about something online about, I think it was an Australian girl who had a series of epilepsies after she received the Gardasil vaccine. So I was a little apprehensive," Outar said.

The cervical cancer vaccine introduced to the market three years ago protects against four strains of human papillomavirus or HPV, that may lead to cervical cancer or genital warts. Since then, more than 25 million doses have been administered.

Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed more than 12,000 serious reactions following HPV shots, including 32 deaths from June of 2006 through the end of 2008. But researchers say what should stand out is those rates of adverse events are consistent with what was found in preclinical trials before the vaccine was approved, perhaps taking some of the pressure off major safety concerns.

"The two most common side effects were fainting and blood clot disorders," said Madeleine Lloyd of the NYU College of Nursing Faculty Practice. "The death rate considering how many vaccines we've been giving, obviously nobody wants to have a child that dies from a vaccination. But the good thing about this study is that it is not conclusive that the Gardasil was the cause of the 32 to people who actually died."

The CDC numbers also prove the vaccine was not the direct cause of any reaction -- a "major limitation" of the data acknowledged by the agency itself. All that the reports show is that the side effects happened sometime after vaccination. The CDC still continues to recommend Gardasil for females ages 9 to 26 while continuing to track any reports of adverse events.

"With any vaccine that you give you always weigh up "what the pros? What are the cons? What are the risks? What are the benefits?" and that's what people have to do," Lloyd said.

"I feel it is very important our age in their early 20s to get vaccinated because it is kind of one of those silent, in my mind it is kind of like a silent virus because if you don't get your pap smears done regularly which I feel like most women are reluctant to do because they are afraid of the results, then you never really know," Outar said.

In addition to the HPV vaccine, health professionals say its important for all women to get regular pap screenings for the continued prevention of cervical cancer and other diseases.