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FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
Drugmaker Seeks FDA Approval For Gardasil For Males
CDC Finds Deaths Unrelated To Gardasil Shots
Experts Appalled At Gardasil Requirement For Immigrant Women
Experts Question The Cost Effectiveness Of HPV Vaccine

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Blueberry26
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I worry that with this vaccine it will lead to the need for regular pap smears getting even less attention than it already does. By getting a pap smear every year, you also get in for a pelvic exam (they're usually combined) so you can watch for any of the other myriad diseases and problems of the vaginal region. I wish there could be even just one commercial for this for every 3 for Gardasil. While having a vaccine is great, it's not a miracle shot. And it only prevents *four* of the over 100 different viruses that cause HPV. So yay, but in this discussion we cannot forget these other really important issues.

Ladies, get regular pap smears and pelvic exams!
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HoseaCretan
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I am going through painful procedures for precancerous cells due to HPV, and let me tell you, if I or my partner had been able to have been vaccinated, it's possible I would be saving pain and heartache. It's a women's issue that does not affect women only.
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smileonadog
08/28/09

@HoseaCretan: I hear you. The level of stress this has caused in my life since I found out I had it is immense. My gyno is very cool, very reassuring, but still, it sucks. I dread each and every test and worry a lot. If this vaccine can save lives and spare women from dealing with this, why wouldn't everyone get vaccinnated.
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Pantra
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
My gynecologist was very anti-vaccine for boys "because there's no point" and women over the age of 30 "because after 30, almost everyone's monogamous anyhow." It was such a huge logic fail, from so many angles, than I was speechless.

Seriously, if HPV was known for giving straight men CANCER in their privates, the national dialogue on vaccines would be loud, stringent and unceasing. It's like the "common cold of STDs" meme has convinced people that HPV is no big deal. But I'm pretty sure cervical cancer is not a day at the beach.
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colormeroutine
08/28/09

@Pantra: I would have switched doctors so fast that my paper gown would have turned to ash
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Edited by colormeroutine at 08/28/09 12:16 PM colormeroutine was starred colormeroutine was unstarred

likepenguins
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Absolutely it should be approved. I was not likely to get mumps, but I got a vaccination for it, because I could have been a carrier and given it to someone else. I did work with TB patients, and never contracted it, but I still had to get tested and revaccinated, in case I was carrying it and gave it to someone else.

Sometimes I with the acronym STD had never been popularized. Too much focus on the "sexually-transmitted" part, and not enough focus on the big honking DISEASE part.
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charliekohler
08/28/09

@likepenguins: Actually, they changed the name. They're STIs- because they're infections, not disesases.
I know. Weird. But true.
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bangers
08/28/09

@charliekohler: also because "disease" sounds far more damning than "infection" -the name change ideally was supposed to reduce stigma
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colormeroutine
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
Absolutely gardasil needs to be given to boys. Haven't they been testing men for HPV in other countries for years? I never understood why we don't routinely. Sure, its unlikely ever to cause any problems for them, but that doesn't help the women they are (usually unknowingly) spreading it around to
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Zombies make the heart grow fonder
08/28/09

@colormeroutine: I was under the impression that there was no way to test for HPV in men.[www.cdc.gov]
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Edited by Zombies make the heart grow fonder at 08/28/09 11:43 AM

colormeroutine
08/28/09

@Zombies make the heart grow fonder: There are tests, they just aren't FDA approved yet. And aren't likely to become so very quickly because since it usually doesn't affect the men directly, testing them isn't seen as necessary or worth putting money into
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boobookitteh
08/28/09

@colormeroutine: It affects men who have sex with men. But I don't think that would make an effective argument somehow.
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BeckySharper
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I am 100% for Gardasil being given to boys. They get HPV too, and although it's much less likely to cause health problems for them, the whole purpose of immunization is to protect EVERYONE by create herd immunity.
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wordinedgewise
08/28/09

In reply to FDA Panel To Make Recommendations On Two HPV Vaccines
I'm just waiting for the moms of some of the boys to start saying "Oh I'm not going to get Johnny vaccinated, he's only 12 but I'm sure he'll never sleep with any of those dirty sluts."

Of COURSE we need to give it to boys. Put it in their goddamn breakfast cereal.
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CerebralMagpie
08/19/09

In reply to Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
It's really going to stick in my craw that this evidence says yes, the pharma company DID oversell the product will be used as evidence that the product is somehow faulty/bad.It's bad enough there's a lot of stigma attached to a vaccine that can help with a sexual related problem - in my country there was a lot of argument and holding of vaccine back from teenage girls because it "promoted them to have unsafe sex." Opponents were saying "if you don't get the vaccine just keep your legs closed you sluts!". Yeah, thanks really helpful.

I'm also majorly fecked off at the unsubstantiated claims in the UK that the Gardisal vaccine caused certain teenagers to present ME/Glandular Fever/stress illness type symptoms. There was a whole lot of correlation and shouting in the tabloids about it, that did not once take into account any of the lifestyle, stress or health problems the teenager was having.At 18, I had Glandular Fever (ME). If you have little understanding of this condition (it's hard to detect in your blood, it's stress related, symptoms come and go), you're a little undereducated, and you get something like a new vaccine, the leap to correlation would be very easy.

I'm very much into the vaccine debate, and Gardisal is one of them. I refuse to let anyone dismiss it, simply because they don't want to think about their little girl being a sexual person.
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BreeDMN
08/19/09

In reply to Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
After several years of feeling I had to justify to others why my daughters had not gotten this vaccine (after discussing the risks with them) I finally feel vindicated. Merck's primary interest has always been their bottom line. The Vioxx debacle put a huge dent in it that had to be replaced and it was not going to be at the expense of my daughters' health. They are far more likely to die of a cause other than cervical cancer and those "one less" commercials make me crazy. Not to minimize the deaths of 4000 women, but cervical cancer is by no means an epidemic in this country. Merck should be ashamed for making parents think so while ignoring women who are really at risk.
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Eriu
08/19/09

@BreeDMN: I am not going to try to convince you to get the vaccine, but I'd like to share my story so that you are making a more informed decision. I agree with what you've said about Merck's priorities, and I also think they've done a real injustice by glossing over the other, and in many ways more horrific, effects of HPV by calling genital warts "other HPV diseases" in most of their ads. I do not think the greatest benefit, or even the second greatest benefit, of Gardisil is preventing cervical cancer. I think the greatest benefit is slowing the spread of the disease and hopefully eventually eliminating it (wishful thinking, I'm sure), and I think the second greatest benefit is preventing genital warts. I have high-risk and low-risk HPV. I don't think anyone should have to justify themselves, but the rest of the world doesn't seem to agree with me, so I'll just say that compared to most people my age (23), I have slept with a below-average number of people. HPV is not just some invisible disease with a slim chance of causing cervical cancer and no other side effects. Genital warts, the deep depression and loneliness they often cause, and the excruciatingly painful (and expensive) treatments for them (applications of acid and laser surgery that left me unable to walk for over a week) are all completely ignored (or joked about) by our society, so it's no wonder to me that these don't factor in to your thought process on the issue. But I have a mother too, and I can't tell you how much she wishes she could have spared me from nearly three years of agony. I am in a much better place now than I was in the past, both physically and emotionally, and in a happy relationship, but I can't even articulate the immense pain this disease has caused me and how much work and money and luck (finding someone who loved me enough not to care) it took me to get here. The fear of cervical cancer is always there, of course, but the other aspects of the disease have been far more devastating. I just think it's important to know exactly what you're dealing with.
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specials
08/20/09

@Eriu: thanks for your reasoned reply and for sharing your story. tons - TONS - of gals get HPV and it is super stressful and it sucks and it is not *only* transmissible by intercourse. the surgeries i've had for it left me unable to carry a pregnancy to term. yes, it's expensive. yes, it's worth it, even if it's not 100%.
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clevernamehere
08/19/09

In reply to Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
Merck was definitely doing some outreach to minority women. I worked on a nationwide outreach through black churches. But they weren't providing the shots.

I have a lot of problems with Big Phama but they're not the ones who are going to improve access to pap smears, that's the job of government.
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BreeDMN
08/19/09

@clevernamehere: If they were really interested in helping low income women they'd offer the shots at low or no cost through PP clinics. Anyone know if they've done that? Probably not, as they'd rather target insured parents who can afford the cost. Do the math - there are millions of young girls, and at $360 each you're looking at a never-ending source of revenue for Merck.
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clevernamehere
08/19/09

@BreeDMN: Big Pharma is a business, not a charity. I don't understand why people expect it to act like a charity. GM isn't out giving out cars to people who can't afford them. That doesn't mean cars are evil.
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BreeDMN
08/19/09

@clevernamehere: I'm not saying that they should be a charity, but since you used the example, GM is participating in the Cash for Clunkers program and offering things like 0% financing for 6 yrs. Doesn't that help people who might not otherwise be able to afford them to buy new cars? Is that any different than Merck subsidizing the cost of the shots for women without the means to pay full price for them? According to some drug commercials, there are companies, Astra Zeneca for one, that offer help to pay for medicine for those who can't afford it. It is possible to survive without a car, but you might not if you can't afford to pay for healthcare. I think you're comparing apples to oranges.
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clevernamehere
08/19/09

@BreeDMN: Yes, but the government is putting in the money for the Cash for Clunkers program. There is also a difference between waiting to get your money and giving something away. While I think Gardasil is important, it isn't life saving health care the way treating someone for a heart attack is.

All the drug companies provide some donations and I'm sure someone is getting Gardasil for free, but I hate when the conversation turns into "Why don't they just give it away?" Its putting the blame for our patchy health care system on people who don't provide health care.
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SunburnedCounsel
08/19/09

In reply to Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
So I know "cancer vaccine" is how it's being marketed, especially in the developed world, but HPV wrecks many other types of havoc too- including infertility and genital warts. I've spent the last three years working on creating increased access to the vaccine, which, while not perfect, is super important, especially to low income women who are less likely to get a pap every year and more likely to die of cervical cancer. I which Merck (and GSK) where more honest and less single-minded (I know, I know, "to dream, the impossible dream...")
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Edited by SunburnedCounsel at 08/19/09 6:05 PM SunburnedCounsel was starred SunburnedCounsel was unstarred

specials
08/19/09

In reply to Medical Groups Used Drug Company Money To Promote Gardasil
it's a shame that this vaccine - a hugely important medical advance in HPV and cancer prevention - is getting tarnished by greedy drug companies and others standing to make a profit. this is an excellent women's health development but Merck is screwing themselves by marketing it as perfect when it is not. it is still worth getting for almost all women. high-risk HPV much worse than a sore injection site.
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bangers
08/19/09

@specials: i'm so on the fence about this. originally, i did not want the vaccine because it was so new and i felt it wasn't tested enough. i finally got the first shot just after i turned twenty and that evening i fainted for the first time in my life.
it is a deeply important vaccine but i agree that it is incorrectly marketed as 'perfect'. the women's health clinic at my university chastised me for not getting the vaccine sooner, but i experienced negative side effects that i was not advised or warned of in advance.
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Eriu
08/19/09

@specials: As someone who has both high- and low-risk HPV, I'd add that both are much worse than a sore injection site.
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Yamunation
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
People will always be closed-minded fanatics against anything that helps women.

So I guess we should just stop researching a cure for AIDS, and all other STDs, because to find a cure means we are encouraging youth to have sex????

Can't they think for a moment, of all the women who are raped? Knowing the risk women are at for rape, I'm amazed parents would allow this deadly disease be trasmitted to their daughters. Nice parenting. And, even if a girl waits until marriage for sex, the guy most likely has not. That means, she is STILL at risk, even though she adhered to the rules of fanatics.
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Eriu
03/27/09

@Yamunation: I don't like bringing rape or people who save themselves for marriage into this. It sort of implies that people who consent to sex or don't save themselves deserve it more. People should care about the risk to others' (and in turn the general public's) health whether it's their own daughter or their son's future wife or a random "slut." No rape argument necessary.
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Hana Maru
03/27/09

@Yamunation: Yes, thank you. People like to act like girls and women are always culpable for STIs and pregnancy, even though rape is pandemic. And when it comes to their sons, parents never think their precious boys could do such a thing.
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Hana Maru
03/27/09

@Eriu: She's not saying that rape victims or abstinent-til-marriage folks deserve it, but that telling girls to be good doesn't help protect them. Rape is frighteningly common and a big way in which women contract diseases, yet it's largely ignored in favor of policing girls' choices.
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Quecchua (Subversive Unschooling Witch in Toronto)
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I am so very suspicious about vaccines...It is such a billion dollar industry. If there wasn't so much to gain from injecting dead viruses into mine or my girl's bloodstream, I might even think about getting it. But since it will make someone filthy rich....mmm no thank you.
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CollegeBookworm
03/27/09

@Quecchua: A billion dollar industry that has basically eradicated many of the diseases that used to kill thousands upon thousands of people.

Check out this thread for some info on why the financial aspect of vaccination isn't so important. We discussed herd immunity a lot- the concept that if you choose to opt out or choose to opt your children out of vaccination, you'll basically be putting the entire society at risk. [jezebel.com]
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CollegeBookworm
03/27/09

@CollegeBookworm: That link doesn't work. Hold it... Here [jezebel.com]
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tscheese
03/27/09

@Quecchua: Most vaccines are not a major money-maker for doctors and clinics. The fancy, flashy stuff like Gardasil is expensive, sure, but most essential childhood vaccines are not prohibitively expensive, and much of that cost goes toward research, transportation, and preservation of the vaccines.

The "dead virus particles" teach your body to kill live virus particles. You don't have to love the HPV vaccine, which is new and controversial and admittedly very expensive, but you'd do the rest of us a disservice if you and your child don't get vaccines from diseases that kill.

Hell, even if Big Pharma is getting some throwbacks, I'd rather line my pediatrician's coffers with a few extra bucks than see my kid die of polio.
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argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?
03/27/09

@Quecchua: so, let me get this straight. you don't want to prevent your daughter from contracting hpv and potentially developing cervical cancer (which can kill you or make you infertile) because someone else might be making money from it?

wow. you are missing the point entirely and putting your daughter's health at risk. niiiiiiice.
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lalaland13
03/27/09

In reply to Now That HPV Vaccine Is Available For Boys, Debate Turns to Health Benefits, Not Sex
I can't even figure out if I want this vaccine or not. I think I'm on the upper end of the recommended age range, but it's expensive and I just don't know. The FDA has really effed up things before, and...I don't know. But if in a few years, I have kids and they have ascertained that it's definitely OK, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
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