Gardasil HPV Vaccine

Have any of you ladies taken this vaccine?

I think I should, but I am always wary of shots until I know everything about them.

Would love to hear feedback.

 

I got the shot when it first came out. I had no reactions to it, but I've heard some women who had horror stories. Overall, I'm pretty healthy (thank the Gods), so I think this why my body handled it well. If you're not in a serious relationship and are healthy, then it is a good idea to get.

 

Thank you, I am very much leaning towards it. I will consult my doctor first as well.

 

I think that's very wise.

From all I've heard and read, the vaccine is very safe. There have been a very small number of bad reactions associated with it, but they haven't been proven to be caused by it. And cervical cancer, while not especially common, has one of the worst death rates of any cancer.

Both of my daughters got the shot with no problems.

Remember you still need Pap smears, even if you get the shot.

 

Very good to hear. And yes, I am diligent about seeing the doctor. I would be too scared of what I didnt know, were I to ignore appointments.

 

My doctor said that it should only be used on a woman under 18. I asked him about it last year at my physical and he said it wasn't worth it at 21.

He just advised me that if I had my physical yearly like I should they would probably catch any abnormal cells that could be the early signs of cervical cancer.

Good on you for checking it out though, I was very interested in it until my doctor told me not to bother.

 

It's pretty unnecessary and not as great as it's made out to be.
Think of it like this.. there's 19 high risk types of hpv.
vaccine knocks out 4 of the 19.

 

Your right about that, but the 4 it knocks out are the 4 most likely to cause cervical cancer.

 

they were trying to give me it the day before prom two years ago, and i said no and stopped going to that doctor anyway, then someone told me that a bunch of chicks died from it and i said whatever no i don't want to get the shot.
my arms blow up anyway when i get vaccines.

 

i just think its dumb that some people are against it because they think it encourages premarital/ teenage sex, and promiscuity. i probably would have gotten it, because my family has a susceptibility to cancer (bone, brain, throat, lung, etc) but i was already too old for it.

i hadn't heard the horror stories though.

 

I am above the 'age limit'. But, if I were younger, I wouldn't get the vaccine anyway. I go to the doctor regularly, and am not really worried about it. Of course, that's not to seem like I couldn't care less if I ended up with cancer, but I've had the cells and I really don't see the point in getting a vaccine for something that's already happened to me.

The cells I had were cancerous, and they were burned off....and it hurt. I have to get a checkup every 6 months to make sure no new cells are forming and to make sure my body is still fighting off the cells. So, the shot wouldn't do my any good.

And, it's fantastic that you're looking into something before getting a vaccine!

 

That too bothers me, and is a totally sensitive issue. (But I have strong opinions about it)

 

No way in hell would I get this vax. We don't vax at all, but even if we did, I wouldn't get it. It's so new that there's absolutely no way of telling what kind of long-term repercussions it could hold. Not to mention the extremely high rate of complications, including deaths, as compared to other vaccinations.

I'm not worried about increasing teenage sex or promiscuity or anything, what I'm worried about is the mistaken belief that many women will get that they don't have to get a pap smear because they got the shot. Even though all the literature says you still have to get pap smears every year, the commercials all keep calling it a cervical cancer vaccine (it is NOT NOT NOT a cancer vaccine, I can't say this enough!) and uninformed women will think "Oh, I got the cervical cancer vaccine, I don't need to get a pap." Or they forget to schedule and shrug it off till the next year, thinking, "It doesn't matter that much, I got the cancer vaccine." Etc. People believe what they want to believe and when they get this vaccination, they believe they are protected from cervical cancer because of the propaganda, like the Gardasil ads and years of the CDC insisting that vaccines are entirely safe and oh-so-effective, despite all the evidence to the contrary. So even if they're told to get a pap every year, it'll go in one ear and out the other. I'm predicting that in a decade, we'll have a massive surge in cervical cancer as a result of women not getting paps and therefore no treatment till the cancer's at a very advanced stage.

 

my friend got the shot and still got hpv...

 

That is absolutely false. Ask your doctor. Ask 100 doctors.

What curious reasoning. By analogy, you wouldn't want to get the brakes fixed on your car, because that will lull you into a false sense of security and therefore you wouldn't get them checked after that. What ridiculous nonsense.

If you don't want the vaccine for yourself, that's your choice. But you are doing a grotesque disservice by spreading such misinformation.

 

It only protects against the HPV strains that most commonly cause cervical cancer. There are many others.

Very true. I would never trust medical advice that I got from strangers on the internet anyway. Who the hell knows where it came from?

 

I was one of those horror stories you read about.

Right when i got the injection, there was swelling and redness at the injectiion site, it looked like a golf ball. It went down pretty quickly But for the next few months, i had this dizzy spells, hot flashes, panic attacks, nausea, weakness, ect. It was awful and i had no idea what was wrong with me. I got tested for diabetes and a bunch of other things. I thought it may have been the vaccination so i never went back for the second or third. Turns out i was right, i read an article in the paper about millions of girls who had the same reactions as me. a few of them even died.

Vaccinations are evil. I cant believe they give this stuff to kids. Wrap it up before you smack it up and you should be fine.

 

agree with seraphina. i havnt had it and wont have it. i dont just immediately trust any new vaccine or prescription drug that pharmaceutical companies come out with and it boggles my mind that anyone would go out and get this shot as soon as they see commercials for it.
women who arent in monogamous relationships should use condoms anyway to prevent the countless other things they could get.
ill stick to using protection and only having sex with my boyfriend, whos been tested.

 

Does anyone know why the vaccination has an age limit?

I haven't been vaccinated with Gardasil. I have thought about it. I currently have no intention of taking it, but I'm still interested in learning about it.

 

Two reasons. The main one is that Gardasil hasn't been tested sufficiently in women over 26. Testing is currently underway and Merck is seeking FDA approval for ages 27-45. The second one is that by the age of 26, most women have already contracted (and recovered from) HPV.

According to the CDC, by the age of 50, more than 80% of American women have contracted HPV. The vast majority spontaneously resolve and the woman usually doesn't even realize that she was infected. So there's not much point in Merck pushing Gardasil for the older population like they have been for the younger because the vaccine is contraindicated in women who have already contracted HPV. We won't see media campaigns (like that insipid "one less" series we've got going on right now), editorials, etc, even if the vaccine is approved for the older population. There's just not money to be made in pushing it like there is for the younger population.