Some people are against the new Gardasil pill that helps prevent HPV. What do you think of it? I can’t remember their claims, but I believe it was something like it is unnecessary to mess with young teenage girls bodies by injecting them with this vaccine. Do you know more about this?

    

I have been researching this as well. Fortunatley I have 10 years before my daughter is of age to take the shot. Hopefully by then more research will be out there.

Supposedly, this shot can help prevent a majority of the HPV viruses the can cause cervical cancer. I am torn on this whether I believe it is just another unnecessary vacine, or if it can actually live up to its claims. I guess as time goes on, there will be more statistics.

The HPV vaccine is an intramuscular injection. This means that the injection is given directly into the muscle tissue. The HPV vaccine comes in a series of three shots that are given over a period of six months. The vaccine is especially recommended for girls between the ages of 10 and 12 as it is important to get the vaccine before engaging in sexual contact.

How it Works

HPV vaccinations use particles that are similar to the actual human papillomavirus. These particles are injected into the body, fooling the immune system into thinking that it has become infected with a foreign agent. The immune system reacts by creating antibodies against the virus to kill it. An antibody is a protein created by the body to fight off a specific antigen (foreign particle or disease). These antibodies remain in the immune system's memory in case a similar infection occurs in the future. This means that if the woman is exposed to HPV at a later time, the antibodies from the virus-like particles would remember the virus and be able to quickly fight off the actual HPV disease.

Success Rate

The vaccine has a 100 percent success rate for strains 6, 11, 16 and 18 of the HPV virus. Unfortunately, the vaccine does not work for women already exposed to HPV. If you are already infected with one strain of HPV, it may show limited success in helping prevent infection from the other strains of the virus, but not the strain you are already infected with.