STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

a vaccine (Gardasil) for the virus that causes cervical cancer was just approved. Although it is primarily intended for pre-sexually active young women, I am looking into whether or not I am eligible to receive the series of shots as I am considered high risk for cancer.

http://www.gardasil.com/

relrel wrote:

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i may be mistaken, but i don't think the vaccine has been FDA approved for anyone over 26.

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yup - you're right.  "  GARDASIL is approved for 9- to 26-year-old girls and women." when I heard about it I put in a call to my gynocologist since she has encouraged me to get genetic testing - guess the answer will be no... If I learn there is any loophole, I'll share it out.

erin wrote:

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well, imo a loophole would be going to another gyno and lying about your age...however this could be a detractor (unless this is just something the christian right has put forth). The vaccine may not protect people already infected and may increase their risk of the kind of lesions that can lead to cervical cancer, the FDA has said. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13206572/

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the reasoning behind the 26 year old cutoff is because by the time a woman in her to mid to late 20's she's probably already been infected with HPV. Chances are that any moderately sexually active woman (meaning, really, a woman who's been with more than one partner who's been with more than one partner himself) will have contracted some form of HPV by the time she is in her mid twenties. Also, there are 60-some, 80-some (I'm a little rusty on the exact numbers, i wrote a paper on HPV and cervican cancer in the fall but it has been months) different forms of the virus and only a few of them actually have been linked to the types of lesions that can mutate into cancer.

i would assume that any good gyn would actually test for HPV first before administering the vaccine, but even without the vaccine availability every woman should be tested for HPV at every annual.