Improved
6119 HealthChanged
3791 LivesSaved
3577 Lives0 lives impacted in the last 24 hrs Learn More
I recently was informed that a dear friend of mine was diagnosed with cervical cancer and is currently pending a full hysterectomy. She later advised me that she was diagnosed with the human papillomavirus (HPV) more then 10 years ago.
There is a lot of information on HPV and the risks of cervical cancer in women on the Internet, in the news and it seems everywhere. There is also a vaccine that has been available to young women to protect against 4 types of HPV viruses although there are more then 30 types.
After hearing about my friend, I was curious as a 33 year old women, if this vaccine is available to already sexually active individuals. I went to the Gardasil website to find such information. The scary thing I read is every minute in the United States there is a new case of HPV diagnosed. WOW!
I wanted to write about this since there is a chance that many of us, already sexually active, can benefit from the vaccine. You must talk to your health care provider to see if Gardasil is right for you. Many of us may already have one of the 30 types of HPV that may never show up as genital warts or the cancerous type and if you happen to be one of the lucky ones that do not have HPV, you can still be protected against the 4 types that cause cervical cancer.
I am curious if there are any women out there that was administered Gardasil? Is there anything you can share about your experience including your age.
For more information about cervical cancer, click here https://www.empowher.com/condition/cervical-cancer.
For more information about HPV, click here http://www.thehpvtest.com/default.html?LanguageCheck=1&WT.mc_id=EmpowHER0110.
For more information about Gardasil, visit their website here http://www.gardasil.com/.
All user-generated information on this site is the opinion of its author only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Members and guests are responsible for their own posts and the potential consequences of those posts detailed in our Terms of Service.
Add a Comment55 Comments
Anon,
Miscortes works for EmpowHer. She is not in pharmaceutical sales or public relations. If you look for other questions she has answered or posts she has written on the site, you will be able to see that her writing style is simply that -- her writing style. She's asking other women for their experiences. And her primary advice is, "you must talk to your health care provider to see if Gardasil is right for you."
I personally have a friend who had cervical cancer in her 20s (this was 20 years ago) and she never knew why. I have often wondered if it was undiagnosed HPV of some sort. And she had her Pap smears. I'm not sure it's always as black and white as you make it seem.
We're always glad for dissenting opinions at EmpowHer -- they teach us, they keep the conversation educational and lively, and they help other women. But as moderators/guides, we take pride in working hard to try to keep it as objective as possible. I'm sorry you felt that Miscortes' post was something that it's not.
May 18, 2010 - 8:44amThis Comment
I don't believe for a minute that anyone other than someone trying to sell the HPV vaccine wrote the story about her friend's cervical cancer and hysterectomy ("I recently was informed..." by miscortes). For one thing, before 2006, most women didn't even know what HPV was. And another thing, doctors didn't test for it either. This NOT conjecture. There are plenty of industry surveys and data out there to confirm this, if you know how to access them. Plus, this "comment" is stiff and clinically informative -- not exactly how a grieving friend would relate her friend's story. If you want to sell something, just be transparent about it and tell it like it is. Also, as you already know, most HPVs clear themselves within a few weeks or at the most within a couple years. But the most IMPORTANT thing about this vaccine is that it only protects against HPVs that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer. So that means even with the vaccine, your friend could have gotten cervical cancer anyway -- unless some doctor did extensive testing to ascertain that the cervical cancer she has is linked to the 2 HPVs that the vaccine prevents. And finally, if she was diagnosed with HPV 10 years ago, why didn't her doctor follow up with Pap tests and/or cervical biopsies on the inevitable dysplasia that would have followed? Why did the physician allow this to get to cancer? Or did your friend forget to go back for her pap smears, since most women who get cervical cancer in the US haven't had a Pap test in the past 5 years, or have never had one?
May 1, 2010 - 4:46pmThis Comment
I want to thank everyone that posted about this subject. There are bad reports, good reports and it even appears to be some argument in between. Regardless of the good, bad and indifferent, this has been great information from everyone involved. There is little information available and this subject is getting more and more common. I really appreciate all the your insight and I am very sorry to hear about any ill effects that you or your daughters have suffered.
Please know that each and every one of your comments will be read by many other people and in either direction. Your story is being heard. As I am writing this comment, there are over 1400 reads on this post in one week's time.
I invite other individuals to join this discussion. The more educated you are, the better choices you will make.
April 24, 2010 - 10:56amThis Comment
Medical professionals are asking thses questions-
April 20, 2010 - 6:09pmhttp://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/long/302/7/795
This Comment
A medial professional from Norway (where they don't use Gardsil, as far as I know) wrote an editorial that asks some questions, yes.
"Editorials represent the opinions of the authors and JAMA and not those of the American Medical Association."
Author Affiliation: The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, Oslo, Norway.
I noticed that a lot of her sources were quite old, and a lot of them I, unfortunately can't afford to pay to read. As such, any evaluation of her opinion for objectivity is really not possible.
I'm tired, I have better things to do than waste my time with you and your belief system any more. Hopefully people coming on here to read about this will see through your agenda, look at the facts and abstracts and articles I have presented and conclude that your ideas do not match reality.
April 20, 2010 - 10:29pmThis Comment
My comment is the first one posted on here. I fill ill after the vaccine. I am not anti vaccine unless I believe a vaccine to be unsafe which this one has proved to be for MANY girls. Get the crap off the market.
April 20, 2010 - 6:06pmThis Comment
Here's a truly wonderful, fantastic, great piece published in Wired magazine on-line. Please, I am BEGGING you all to read this all the way through. PLEASE, PLEASE, for that sake of the children!!!
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/all/1
April 20, 2010 - 8:51amThis Comment
Canadianbroad, I wouldn't visit any virus infested site that you suggested...your words create a cause for alarm. "For the sake of the children"? Or for the sake of the big Pharma's that want to shut us up? Nice try though. Hey...I think I hear something! Sounds like a whistle! Hmmm...could it be that Karma train coming to give you a little ride?
April 20, 2010 - 9:03amThis Comment
Are you seriously suggesting that Wired Magazine is intentionally spreading viruses to people who visit their website? Really? A highly regarded professional magazine? SERIOUSLY!?!??!
You are a crank. And hysterical. And no, I'm not connected to any pharmaceutical company in any way (so you can drop the ol' worn out Big Pharma lie) ... I am only interested in the truth. And you should be too.
But it's obvious from your tone and your comments that you can no longer discuss this topic in a reasonable manner.
And it is "for the sake of the children": It highlights how anti-vaxers work, how they spread disinfo, and why. And it talks about what is happening in the U.S. right now because parents are being frightened (mostly by lies) away from vaccinating. Children have died and will continue to die.
"In May, The New England Journal of Medicine laid the blame for clusters of disease outbreaks throughout the US squarely at the feet of declining vaccination rates, while nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente reported that unvaccinated children were 23 times more likely to get pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes violent coughing and is potentially lethal to infants. In the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Jason Glanz, an epidemiologist at Kaiser’s Institute for Health Research, revealed that the number of reported pertussis cases jumped from 1,000 in 1976 to 26,000 in 2004. A disease that vaccines made rare, in other words, is making a comeback. “This study helps dispel one of the commonly held beliefs among vaccine-refusing parents: that their children are not at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” Glanz says.
“I used to say that the tide would turn when children started to die. Well, children have started to die,” Offit says, frowning as he ticks off recent fatal cases of meningitis in unvaccinated children in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. “So now I’ve changed it to ‘when enough children start to die.’ Because obviously, we’re not there yet.” "
As for Karma: My Karma just ran over your Dogma. And that makes me happy.
April 20, 2010 - 9:43amThis Comment
There is a significant amount of information outlining how aluminum adjuvants can be dangerous to motor neurons and cause motor neuron death. This is one such study - http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:17114826. I believe it is common knowledge that alzheimers is caused by a build-up of aluminum in the brain (where might that be coming from?). Do your own Due Diligence and you will find many papers (medical) that have been published on the matter. Here's another link for research purposes ... for those that would like more information. http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hydro/al.htm
April 20, 2010 - 8:44amThis Comment