{"id":2619,"date":"2011-04-28T20:40:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T01:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2619"},"modified":"2011-04-28T20:40:41","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T01:40:41","slug":"bedside-manners-o-canada-you-took-a-stand-on-gardasil-for-thee-and-for-all-of-us-older-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/04\/28\/bedside-manners-o-canada-you-took-a-stand-on-gardasil-for-thee-and-for-all-of-us-older-women\/","title":{"rendered":"BEDSIDE MANNERS: O Canada! You Took a Stand on Gardasil for Thee (and for all of us ‘older’ women)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of April being STD Awareness Month<\/a>, I devote this month\u2019s column to a topic that remains near and dear to my heart (and my cervix): HPV, human papillomavirus.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a great time to get yourself tested at your local STD testing location<\/a>, or send an e-card to a loved one who could use a friendly reminder:<\/p>\n

\"Don't<\/a>\"STDs<\/a>This month might have inspired some of you to consider vaccines that offer some protection against HPV: like Gardasil<\/a> or Cervarix<\/a>.*\u00a0 However, don\u2019t get too excited about Gardasil if you happen to be 27 years old (or older) and live in the U.S.\u00a0 Earlier this month, the FDA decided against expanded the vaccine\u2019s label use for \u2018older\u2019 women:<\/p>\n

\u2026the Limitations of Use and Effectiveness for GARDASIL was updated to state that GARDASIL has not been demonstrated to prevent HPV-related CIN 2\/3 or worse in women older than 26 years of age.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, as of Tuesday, \u2018older\u2019 Canadian women now have more options than their U.S. counterparts:<\/p>\n

Merck announced that Health Canada has extended the indication of GARDASIL\u00ae<\/sup> [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, and 18) Recombinant Vaccine] in women up to the age of 45. Merck’s HPV vaccine is now approved for girls and women nine through 45 years of age for the prevention of cervical cancer, vulvar and vaginal cancers, precancerous lesions and genital warts caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, 18.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what\u2019s the deal?\u00a0 According to a Canadian\u00a0women\u2019s health expert, this is a good decision:<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, there’s a tendency for women to remain at risk of acquiring new HPV infections as they get older. Whether they are changing their social status or not, women should talk to their doctors about the HPV protection provided by the quadrivalent vaccine,” said Dr. Alex Ferenczy, Professor of Pathology and Obstetrics & Gynecology at McGill University.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If I’m correct in inferring that Dr. Ferenczy\u2019s use of the phrase \u201csocial status\u201d refers to a woman\u2019s sexual partner\/sexual relationship status, then are we to assume that U.S. women between the ages of 27 and 45 are in more stable sexual relationships than their Canadian counterparts?\u00a0 I\u2019ve yet to read a study that would support this conclusion.<\/p>\n

So, as a U.S. woman who happens to be in this age group, I feel it only right to encourage my peers to ask their doctor about Gardasil, especially if they\u2019re \u201cchanging their social status.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the boys and men out there, remember that the FDA approved Gardasil in October 2009<\/a> for protection against two types of HPV which cause genital warts in males ages 9-26.\u00a0 Then, last December, the FDA approved of GARDASIL for the prevention of anal cancers<\/a> caused by two different types of HPV in females and males<\/strong> 9-26 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, once again, there appears to be possible age-discrimination: men over 26 years old, consider\u00a0whether Gardasil might offer health benefits<\/a> for you.<\/p>\n

*Note to readers: I respect that many will decide that a vaccine is not right\/healthy\/safe for themselves or for their family members.\u00a0 I highlighted the recent news about Gardasil because I believe that everyone deserves access to vaccine updates.\u00a0 I\u2019ll conclude by quoting myself<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if the pro- and anti-vaccine folks will ever see eye to eye, but there\u2019s absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by being pro-HPV-education<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of April being STD Awareness Month, I devote this month\u2019s column to a topic that remains near and dear to my heart (and my cervix): HPV, human papillomavirus.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a great time to get yourself tested at your local STD testing location, or send an e-card to a loved one who could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21094],"tags":[851,2397,356,1934,21342,21377,21395,33,2862,21445,876,21588,21821,21823],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bedside-manners","tag-body","tag-boys","tag-canada","tag-cdc","tag-fda","tag-gardasil","tag-girls","tag-health","tag-hpv","tag-hpv-vaccine","tag-men","tag-merck","tag-std","tag-sti"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}