My shingles shot hurt for a few weeks, but after day 2 it hurt less and less.
I tried to get HPV, but it hasn’t been approved for old ladies. At least, not last time i checked.
I was tested and I’m negative for HPV, so the “you were already exposed” argument seems weak.
It seems to be getting better, although slowly. The odd thing is it hurt a ton going in, but the next few days I barely felt anything. Comparing that to the COVID vaccine and the COVID vaccine hurt like hell the first few days, but then quickly got better. With the COVID vaccine, I barely felt it going in. The HPV vaccine took a month to hurt like hell after the initial jab hurt a ton. I’ll probably ask if they could give me the 2nd dose without injuring my other arm or do something not to cause this again. If it doesn’t stop hurting I guess I’ll have to look into doing something more.
It’s approved up to age 45. I was I think exactly 45 when I learned of the age increase. So I asked my pcp for it. She sent me to a drug store. The drug stores won’t do it though if you’re over 26 so I gave up. Decided now I want it again recently. I’m over 45 now. Found a different doctor who is in a huge medical group in NYC and easily got it there. I don’t think they care about the age limit.
Anything I googled about this gives no real good reason why people over this arbitrary age 45 can’t get it. “Already exposed” is an extremely weak argument and the only reason I found. Who the hell is not exposed prior to 45, but then suddenly at age 45 has ALL THE HPV’S! The vaccine protects against the 9 strains that are most likely to cause cancer or other bad things, so you would have had to of been exposed to all 9 to have no benefit from the vaccine at all.
I called my insurance company and asked if I was covered because I’m over the age where it’s been approved. They said I was covered. I have my doubts, but I haven’t gotten a bill yet, so we’ll see. 
Seems like some weird age discrimination to me where they want women over 45 to get cancer and die.
Well, i had a long discussion with my gynecologist about it. I think if it’s not approved for my age, it will be really hard to find anyone (outside of a clinical study or something) willing to give it to me.
but I’m above the age it’s approved for and I got it through my gynecologist.
TBD if I’m going to follow through with the other 2 doses as I’m terrified of losing use of both my arms.
You started at 45, though, is sounds like?
no. My story was long. I looked into it at age 45, but gave up because the drug store said no as I was over 26.
I got it a few years later at my current age which is older than 45. Decided to ask a different doctor this time.
Oh, interesting. Maybe i should try again.
My PCP tends to be a rules-follower, though.
When I got the HPV vaccine it wasn’t approved for my age range, but if your doctor thinks you would benefit from it they can give it to you anyway. I had a PA that I already didn’t particularly like doing my annual woman’s exam and she refused which gave me the motivation to find someone better. I did and that doc gave me the vaccine.
yeah, I had heard from a friend who got it when he was outside the approved age range, so I decided to try again. He got it years ago though when the age limit was 26 and he was over 26. I think anyone can get it if you go to the right doctor who both has the vaccine in their office and will agree to give it to you.
I have never even considered the HPV vaccine for myself (but I’m over 50). Should I?
I considered it for my girls but I decided to let them choose. Don’t know if they got it.
Same, we mostly let our daughter decide. IIRC at the time they released this, there was some perceived drawbacks and frankly it felt a bit like a marketing push to solve a problem that wasn’t. And IIRC, my daughter also chose not to get it.
I pushed my son to get it. He asked his pediatrician, and it turned out it had just been approved for boys. I authorized his first dose, and he turned 18 and authorized the rest himself.
A vaccine against cervical, penile, and esophageal cancer seemed like a good deal to me.
Almost all cervical cancer in females is caused by hpv.
So is about half of esophageal cancer in both sexes. And penile cancer is rare, but it’s the cause of most penile cancer, as well.
That’s been my experience with most flu shots I’ve received.
When I mentioned this experience several months ago, it was pointed out that this can happen if the injection is given in a non-optimal part of the arm.
Yes, and I ended up having to get a cortisone injection because of the injury it caused (and from other wear and tear they found at the same time). All better now, though.
Consider your own circumstances and whether there is any chance of you ever getting exposed to an hpv strain in the future that you werent already exposed to.
I havent read any evidence that age alone should be the deciding factor beyond it only being approved for people under 45.
If you get the HPV vaccine before ever being exposed to the virus, there is barely any need to get paps at all. This seems like a good reason why kids should get the vaccine.
Do you continue to get flu shots even though this continually happens?
Sounds like this isn’t unique to the HPV vaccine then or more likely to happen with the HPV vaccine then, but I’m not sure with deciding whether or not to get the 2nd and 3rd dose.
This never happened to me with any other vaccine, including more recently, flu, COVID and I think I got a tetanus shot a few years back. None of them caused this.
oh good. I thought you had previously said that it wasn’t better. I think it’s getting better on it’s own, but if it doesn’t hopefully that solves it.
My main issue right now is trying to decide if I want to go through with the 2nd and then 3rd dose at all. I’m afraid that the next injury will be permanent.
I’m not sure there is a way to know that you’ve never been exposed to HPV. I think any test you would have taken would just say that you don’t have the virus active in your system at that specific time. I don’t think it would tell you if you had it at one time though and it’s now dormant. Most HPV clears up on it’s own, so not sure a test would tell you that you’ve never had it.
There is no test at all for men to say if they have been exposed until it’s too late and they have something icky like cancer. For women, I think it’s only when the virus is actually active.
But since there are a lot of strains, there’s a good chance that if you were exposed it wasn’t to all of them. Also a chance that you’ve never been exposed, but I am not sure any test will tell you that.
Not two months, but I have had 2 vaccine reactions that lasted for weeks.
I mentioned before that I got COVID arm from Pfizer shot #2. Injection site was very hard, red, and swollen for about a week IIRC. Roughly racketball sized lump. Then a rash developed over much of my upper arm that persisted another week or so. Did not have any reactions to the other 3 Pfizer shots.
Had an injection site reaction to a flu vaccine once. Was oozy and didn’t heal for 2-3 weeks IIRC.