I’m gonna be "One Less"!

One less to actually get the Gardasil vaccine that is. When I went in for my yearly appointment last October, both the nurse and OB recommended I receive it. With the nurse, I told her I wasn’t interested. I then heard a 10 minute lecture on how husbands lie and cheat and I shouldn’t have to suffer by getting cancer. When the OB came in she asked me as well, and again I got the lecture, so I asked what the side effects could be. A slight fever for a couple days or muscle pain was all I was told might happen. So I kindly took the brochure and tossed it out as I left the office. (yes, doctors must love me!) But when I got home, I really started to do some research on it, and was quite pleased I had not consented to it.

What is Gardasil?
Gardasil is a vaccine produced by Merck that targets the virus that can causes cervical cancer and genital warts, HPV(or Human Paillomavirus ). This vaccine protects against only 4 strains of the virus, where there are actually over 100 different strains. Although, they have included 2 of the most common cancer causing virus strains. The vaccine is given in three separate doses over the course of 6 months. The shot costs a total of about $400.00, hmm…wonder why Merck (the maker of gardasil) is pushing it so much?

What’s in the shot?

• Aluminum. There are 225 mcg of Aluminum in this series. And aluminum has been shown to cause neurologic harm in infants and children. Alzhiemers and dementia patients have also been shown to have aluminum deposits in the brain.
• Polysorbate 80, 50mcg. This is a known carcinogen and this chemical has been shown to cause infertility in rats causing estrogenic alterative effects and reproductive disturbances.
• Sodium borate, 35 mcg. Is actually a common roach killer and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the National Institutes of Health notes of sodium borate that it “is now known to be a dangerous poison, it is no longer commonly used in medical preparations.”

What really bothers me

• In December of last year it came out that 28 women miscarried after receiving one of the shots in the series. Although Merck claims no responsibility and says their shot is safe, investigators have told the FDA that it may be related to the fact that some women conceived within 30 days of receiving the shot or were pregnant at the time and didn’t know it. (At that time there were also 3,461 adverse reactions and eight deaths)
• Twice as many women are collapsing or having more than mild reactions than kids did from the Tdap shot that has now been discontinued. Even the National Vaccine Information Center recommends that women be laying down when they receive it and not walk or drive home.
• The number of cervical cancer patients has been dropping over the years. Why? Yearly pap smears may be one reason. Even the American Cancer Society claims that between 1955 and 1992, the number of cases fell by 74%!
• This vaccine shows no long term studies. Cervical cancer caused by HPV has an incubation period of 15-20 years. The test subjects have only been followed for about 5 years.

And now that I’m expecting again, I just wonder what would have happened had I taken those shots? My series of three shots would have ended in April, and I became pregnant in July. And my doctor never once thought to mention how it might effect conception or a brand new baby, even though she knew we were trying for another. Scary to think about, but I’m so glad I stayed away from it.