Ophelia Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 I saw a commercial on TV for the first time for Gardasil and visited the website. Has anyone started a course of the vaccine and/or know someone who has? just curious... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penny Century Posted December 25, 2006 Share Posted December 25, 2006 i'm just past the age limit for the vaccine. there was a line of girls at student health when i was there picking up my glasses getting the shot. i think it's a course of 3 shots (or is it only 2?) anyway, some were there for their second shot and they were telling the ones there for the first one that they felt fine afterwards. i think it's great that my school's student health is really encouraging undergrad women to get it. i had 4 friends get the bad form of HPV in college, one will probably either not be able to conceive or have a very hard time doing so because of the amount of cervical tissue removed. so yay gardasil! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ophelia Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share Posted December 25, 2006 there was a line of girls at student health when i was there picking up my glasses getting the shot. i think it's a course of 3 shots (or is it only 2?) anyway, some were there for their second shot and they were telling the ones there for the first one that they felt fine afterwards. It is three shots over six months. i think it's great that my school's student health is really encouraging undergrad women to get it. i had 4 friends get the bad form of HPV in college, one will probably either not be able to conceive or have a very hard time doing so because of the amount of cervical tissue removed. I don't think that my school's health services is doing anything yet. I am definately going to look into it, though. I too know a few people who have been greatly affected by HPV, including one who went through soooo much pain... and cervial tissue removal... all to then just be diagnosed with cervical cancer... it sucks... I'm hoping for the best with the new vaccine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loon-A-TiK Posted December 26, 2006 Share Posted December 26, 2006 i'm 28 and the cut-off is 27 (though doctors can still off-lable it for you), so i'm not going to be getting it (unless i can do some heavy convincing). however, i've done a lot of reading about it because i did want to get it and wanted to make sure it was something worth getting. in their studies, at least the ones i found, they didn't seperate women who had had intercourse from ones who had not, so we don't know if it is more effective for women/girls who are virgins or who have just never encountered certain forms of hpv. in the studies i read, in all the cases, the women/girls were hpv-free for the strains vaccinated against during the trial period. i've also read that they're studying gardasil in women over 27 to see if it will be effective in our population. i just had surgery to remove hpv infected cells from my cervix. the cells were moderate to severe. if i could have avoided that with a vaccine, i would have been right there! they think that if you're older and have had sex, chances are that you've encountered hpv and your body has already developed immunity to it, or at least certain strains, so the vaccine is pointless. i think there is a point, because you do not know what you have and have not been exposed to, and the leading cancer-causing strains are included in the vaccine. i'm going to try to convince my gyn to give it to me, even though i've already had a cancer-causing form of hpv. how do i know that i'm not going to get a different strain and be back in his office with more pre-cancerous cells? i'd really like to avoid another LEEP surgery. edited to add- i just did some googleing and found that the FDA states that women who have already been infected wtih hpv (like me) can be made worse by getting the vaccine. so i guess that's out for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ophelia Posted December 26, 2006 Author Share Posted December 26, 2006 i'm 28 and the cut-off is 27 (though doctors can still off-lable it for you), so i'm not going to be getting it (unless i can do some heavy convincing). however, i've done a lot of reading about it because i did want to get it and wanted to make sure it was something worth getting. in their studies, at least the ones i found, they didn't seperate women who had had intercourse from ones who had not, so we don't know if it is more effective for women/girls who are virgins or who have just never encountered certain forms of hpv. in the studies i read, in all the cases, the women/girls were hpv-free for the strains vaccinated against during the trial period. i've also read that they're studying gardasil in women over 27 to see if it will be effective in our population. i just had surgery to remove hpv infected cells from my cervix. the cells were moderate to severe. if i could have avoided that with a vaccine, i would have been right there! they think that if you're older and have had sex, chances are that you've encountered hpv and your body has already developed immunity to it, or at least certain strains, so the vaccine is pointless. i think there is a point, because you do not know what you have and have not been exposed to, and the leading cancer-causing strains are included in the vaccine. i'm going to try to convince my gyn to give it to me, even though i've already had a cancer-causing form of hpv. how do i know that i'm not going to get a different strain and be back in his office with more pre-cancerous cells? i'd really like to avoid another LEEP surgery. edited to add- i just did some googleing and found that the FDA states that women who have already been infected wtih hpv (like me) can be made worse by getting the vaccine. so i guess that's out for me This is straight from the vaccine's website: GARDASIL AND YOU GARDASIL is for girls and women ages 9 to 26. GARDASIL works when given before you have any contact with HPV Types 6, 11, 16, and 18. If you've already been infected with HPV, you may still benefit from GARDASIL because it is unlikely that you have been infected with all 4 types of the virus covered by the vaccine. Your doctor or healthcare professional can help you understand more. They apparenly tested the vaccine in in two age groups (9-15 and 16-26)and recieved similar results. I have read that it is going to be tested in woman older than the current given age range (9-26) to test the effectiveness. I also saw something about the manufacturer possibly testing Gardisil on men in order to test the effectiveness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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