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shAARP Talk: Observations from AARP

(Category: Health and Fitness)

Alejandra Owens | July 9, 2008 | 12:34 PM
Alejandra Owens

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Have you guys seen those commercials for Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine? Usually it's young girls with their mothers saying "One less." Well, I recently found out that after requesting that the vaccine by allowed to be sold to women between the 27 and 45 year age bracket, U.S. regulators recently told Merck & Co. they weren't allowed to due to some unresolved issues that still need to be addressed.

I hope this gets resolved sooner than later, especially because when I think about women between 27 and 45 years old not getting access to the vaccine yet, it makes me wonder about women of all ages - will they ever have the option to protect themselves?

Obviously we're no prudes here at Shaarp Session, so I was naturally alarmed when friend of mine over 60 recently was diagnosed with the human papillomavirus (HPV), the sexually transmitted infection (STI) that causes the majority of cases of cervical cancer (and can be prevented by getting the Gardasil vaccine). She didn't even know what HPV was, let alone that it causes cervical cancer. While many assume that women over a certain age are married and have no need for this vaccine, there are still plenty of older single women who are dating and not educated about the prevalence of HPV in the U.S. So what about them?

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