Question Posted Thursday November 13 2008, 6:22 pm
I had a really bad day..my mom took me to the doctor and i was barely told that the shot i was taking was Gardasil. I told my mom about the bad things i'd heard about it but she wouldn't listen to me! She asked the doctors and of course they told us that the media was lying to me. When i got in the nurses room, i seriously began to cry. There was some old bitch there telling me that later in life i'll thank my mom, whatever, I googled it and i read there are serious issues with the vaccine.
Really? How bad is this? I also read it was FDA approved and other good crap about it so now i'm kind of feeling guilty of what i told my mom, but i'm just really confused and really concern with my health. My arm has been hurting where i got the shot but apparently thats natural..
Since I was among that 1%, I have done a lot of research and compiled my findings into a website. It is mostly the negatives and I don't know if you want to hear anymore of that, but if you are interested I would love it if you could check it out. It might help you.
karenR answered Saturday November 15 2008, 2:49 am: Yes it is natural for your arm to hurt
after a shot. Especially if you were tense
when you got it.
I don't approve of giving the gardasil
shot to everyone. I am one who won't
even try ANY medication until it has
been out for at least 7-10 years. FDA
tends to rush things through approval
to satisfy the masses.
That being said, I don't feel there is
any need to tell you horror stories. It
won't help you, the deed is done. You
need to stop worrying about what you can't
change. You know side effects I'm sure.
Watch for those, but don't assume every
pain is one.
Try not to blame your mother to much.
She has listened to the media and felt
she was doing the right thing.
Learn from it though and always remember
to research all medications before you
just take them at a doctors word. I've
found it makes some of them really mad
when you do but do it anyway. The best
and only person to trust on medication
matters is your pharmacist. Doctors get
their information from drug reps (salespeople) who are looking to push their product.
They no very little about them themselves.
Peeps answered Friday November 14 2008, 8:44 pm: I am 100% with you on not trusting this vaccine. There isn't really a big point of it. If you don't whore yourself out then you're not really at a huge risk for HPV, and, at that, this vaccine only helps to prevent 4 strains--OUT OF OVER 100! Now, when the hell did that make any sense?!
So, if you stick with ONE partner your entire life, who only sticks with you his entire life--then where is your risk? I understand if you have 3+ partners, who have also had partners, but if you're smart then that wouldn't be the case at all.
Believe it or not, the Gardasil shot is not all it's cracked up to be. There are serious reported cases of things like seizures, blood clots, and even possible deaths. Now, no vaccination tends to be 100% effective but we're not really sure what this vaccine will do entirely for many years to come.
Here is a link in which a woman reports the death of her daughter possibly being linked to the Gardasil shots:
Here is a link in which a person has gathered side-effects from various women that had the shot. The person has made a table of them (which is sort-of small but readable):
"Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures."
Here is also another site that informs others how serious the side-effects can be:
I did read that Merck (the makers of Gardasil) did add to the side effects list: Bells Palsy, paralysis, seizures, and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Those are all very serious conditions to be developing after a vaccine used to help prevent only four types of HPV. (If this isn't considered a "reliable source" then I don't know what is! If you're going to trust the makers that it's safe then you have to trust the makers when they say it isn't safe!)
The four strains of HPV it helps prevent are numbers 16, 18, 6, and 11. There are more than 100 strains of HPV though. Strains 16 and 18 cause cervical cancer and 6 and 11 cause genital warts; however, there are many other strains that cause the same thing and that are transmitted the same way. EDIT TO ADD IN: Gardasil does NOT prevent ovarian cancer and has nothing to do with the prevention of such cancer.
Genital cancers are caused by HPV strain numbers 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51. Genital warts are caused by 6, 11, 42, 43, 44, 55 and some others I'm not sure of. Other different strains of HPV are also responsible for warts on the hands and feet, a scaly skin disease, and even an oral infection that causes masses on oral mucus membranes.
I also want to point out that as I was searching for links to post here for you to check out, I saw a lot of lawsuit websites where some people are taking legal action to sue Merck for the severe side-effects they experienced. I'm not sure if they have a true lawsuit yet or if they're just claims so far.
Like I said, no vaccination tends to be 100% safe. It's up to you to decide if you want to risk the possible very-harmful side effects that could come along with it. For me, I'd like to give it a few years before even thinking of possibility getting the shot.
The vaccine is so new for all we know it makes women infertile (a major fear of mine which is why I refuse to get the vaccination). We won't be sure what exactly it MAY do to our bodies until quite a few years down the road. I know that in pregnant women it causes miscarriages and major birth defects but it's still early to really find out if it causes anything in women who get pregnant AFTER receiving the shot.
GilbertMar answered Friday November 14 2008, 6:56 pm: You know, I am less bothered by the shot, then the thought that you had no say in it. I am a 49 year old father and I tend not to automatically side with a child, but when it comes to decisions about that child's body, I have to side with the right of a child to make an informed decision as well.
I find it interesting how so many people will be up in arms over a female of any age who wants an abortion and the people who want to stop that right, but then will take that right away when it comes to vaccinations, or other medications that have not truly seen the test of time. This drug is fairly new and no matter the studies, you don't really know what it may do 10 or 20 years down the line.
I don't say this to worry you, odds are, it will have no adverse effect on you, but really people, parents will do anything if they think there child's life is threatened, I argue that in most cases, they are too emotionally involved to make that decision with out the child being fully informed and in agreement.
You will probably never get your parents to agree with me, but I hope there are others out there that will consider the rights of their child and realize that the FDA has been wrong before.
Sweetheart, please don't worry about the shot, instead, remember how having your rights taken from you feels. Your parents are doing what they feel is right, they are just going about it the wrong way.
S_C answered Thursday November 13 2008, 6:49 pm: Your website is definitely not a credible source. One, it's a .com site - never reliable if you want credible information. Two, the person who typed the information has horrible grammatical skills. While nobody is perfect, I'm certainly not going to trust someone who can't properly tell me their opinion. Three, anyone who wants you to accept their opinion will just give you facts that support what they believe. Anyone who is giving you truth (biased or not) will tell you both sides of the story. I don't trust .com websites when I'm looking for information. If you want the truth, see what the FDA has to say; get your information straight from the source who knows best.
The person who gave that information has zero sources to back up what they are saying. The person claims people have died from the shot but gives no proof, and you trust this person? Yeah... something's wrong there.
This person throws out information such as people are becoming ill after receiving the shots... hello, some people are allergic to all sorts of shots. Allergies and adverse reactions are why doctors always make you wait 15-30 minutes after getting a shot - they want to make sure you don't have any bad reactions. It's not just the gardasil shot. They do that with tetanus shots and all vaccinations.
Try this site - it has reliable information that you can trust. It's an FDA question/answer, so it's run by the people who KNOW what they're talking about. [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Good luck. Don't be afraid of the shot. I've gotten all 3, my friends have gotten them, and my family has gotten them. It's nothing to freak out over. I know people who have had the shots and gotten pregnant (your site says that it causes infertility - I just proved that wrong).
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