Huh, i tried to get the HPV vaccine a couple of years ago, and my doctor told me it wasn’t approved for people as old as i am.
I got my most recent COVID and flu vaxxes in December, so I’m presently up to date. Recommendations for my age group is to have COVID done twice a year, but I can only handle once a year.
I plan to get both COVID and flu done a little earlier this year, probably late September or early October.
My doc said 70. Fine with me!
That one was a killer. I don’t normally react too badly from vaccines but that one was the worst and took me about a day and a half. The second worst was the second shingles one.
I’m fascinated by how different everyone’s reactions to vaccines are.
I dreaded getting the shingles vaccines because of stories like yours, because yours appears to be a common experience. My first shingles jab was a day and a half of unpleasantness – though nothing as bad as every one of my COVID jabs – and the second jab was… nothing. I mean, a little blah but I was vertical and functioning. I kept waiting for the worst to hit and it never came. < whew >
I’ll know in a few years how I do with the RSV one. I’m sorry it was so hard on you! Is it a one-and-done, or do you have to get it again? Hope not!
RSV is one and done. Aside from the yearly Covid and flu (that I now get on the same day in the Fall) the only one I have left is the pneumonia one which I’ll get when I am 65.
All of my Covids were Pfizer except for one time I got Moderna. The only particularly bad reaction was the Moderna which was very likely a coincidence but I still select Pfizer now just in case.
Same. Moderna made me slightly sicker, but they are all hard for me to endure. Still, Pfizer only going forward for as long as we have access to COVID vaccines. It’s an exercise in discipline to not skip 'em, but I won’t. If RFK Jr. has his way, none of us will be able to get them ever.
On the plus side, I still haven’t had COVID. I hope that can continue!
Thanks for the info on RSV. I like one-and-dones.
I’ve had Covid twice despite having all of the vaccinations and updates
I am definitely going to get the newest vaccine when it becomes available this fall.
Another round of Covid will likely kill me.
I hope you don’t get it, but if you do, I hope it won’t go as badly as that. It’s less lethal than it was, but still lethal enough. I’m sorry you’ve endured it twice.
Thank you. I am hoping I can avoid this round.
First round in 2023 gifted me with pulmonary embolisms and I am on Eliquis for life.
Second round in September 2024 gave me brain fog, fatigue and anhedonia. Brain fog is still with me although improvements have been noted.
Bring on the jabs!
Interesting! A friend and I both got shots back in March, just to be sure - right before I was travelling cross-country by air.
I knew I was immune to rubella (got tested back in the early 90s before trying to get pregnant). I had the mumps vaccine when I was 10 or so. And measles, I’m not sure. The doctor and my mother were arguing over whether I’d had it (Mom said yes, Doc said it wasn’t on the records). I think he may have immunized me then, but that was over 50 years ago. Yeah, I was paranoid.
It was in short supply - the pharmacist told me I got their last dose, and they were having trouble getting more.
The CDC recommendations are as follows:
It is my understanding that the HPV vaccine isn’t recommended for people over age 45, but this is not the same thing as not being approved.
Also, the current version of the vaccine protects against nine strains of HPV, and I figured its unlikely that I’ve been exposed to all of them.
I was ultimately convinced to get it by this Substack posting by a physician. If you are a female, it is even more convincing:
As she puts it:
In any event, when I talked to my doctor, I told him I was newly divorced after decades of monogamy, so I thought it would be a good idea to get the vaccine series, even though I am in my mid-50s. He agreed and prescribed it for me. I didn’t expect my insurance to cover it, but to my surprise it was covered.
Anyway, I got the last shot of the series a couple of months ago.
Very nicely done …
Bolding mine.
Seriously, there seems to be a lot of assumption in the medical and public health biz that by age 50 you’re either monogamous or celibate.
None of that shit applies to a lot of us.
I was perfectly happy to pay for it. I was about 60 when i asked, and was told no, it’s not approved and i couldn’t get it.
If you are still interested in getting it, you might consider seeing another doctor. It is my understanding that physicians can prescribe all kinds of things that are “off-label” if in their medical judgment it would be beneficial to the patient.
In short, the medical system in the U.S. still generally defers to individual providers.
Insurance is a different ball game of course. I was willing to pay for the vaccine as well, and was pleasantly surprised that my insurance covered all three shots. In that particular case, my insurance apparently deferred to my doctor as well.
I’m not at especially high risk. I’m married, and tested negative for HPV recently. I just thought it might be better to get a vaccine while my immune system was still in decent shape, because i might want it if i become widowed. I don’t even know if it’s true that getting a “lifetime” vaccine younger is helpful.
But my gynecologist retired from gynecology (she only does obstetrics now) do i have a new gynecologist. Maybe i should ask again.
I think they vaccinate the entire body.
The “over 60” thing might be that by some estimate, if you first come in contact with a virus prevented by Gardasil when you are over 60, by the time it gave you end-stage cancer, you would be ~87, so theoretically, the vaccine would not affect your life expectancy.
That’s based on averages-- it is possible to come into contact with a virus and be dead in 6 years. And you could be that outlier. I took stats and probability in college, but no biology courses, so I have no idea how to figure who is likely to develop illness quickly or slowly.
The age has been slowly creeping up. They started only giving it to teenage girls. Then it got approved for teenage boys and young adults. It’s crept up a few times. i think it’s about who has done what safely/efficacy studies.
The alternative argument though is how long is the incubation period between contracting the HPV virus, and developing one of the associated cancers. I don’t know the answer to that.
If it’s typically 30 years, for example, it still might not be worth it for a 50 year old. If it’s typically 20 years, it might. And of course even with “typical” timeframes, some people are outliers.
Agreed. Incubation period does matter. Just as US medicine is pretty relaxed about prostate cancer in men until it really gets going, it may well make sense to be pretty casual about fresh HPV infections of the retired or nearly so cohort.
I realize my post didn’t have nearly enough context included to stand on its own.
I was objecting to the seeming implicit assumption of the authorities that people over 50 (or 60) were either monogamous or celibate. Those assumptions do NOT apply to almost everyone in my age bracket I know.