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Cancer > Cervical Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Forum > Treatment after contracting the HPV virus
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Q: Treatment after contracting the HPV virus
asked by: DoctorQuestion on January 22nd, 2009
I was diagnosed with HPV (human papiloma virus)about 10 years ago and have been doing my check ups since for cancer in the uterus cervix. What I would like to know is.. 1) Is it beneficial for me to be vaccinated against HPV? I don't know which of the types I have and maybe it would be good to be protected against the others. Or will it just boost the virus if it's the same type and have negatively effect. I'm not aware of the vaccine used is a live,killed or DNA- vaccine.
2) Should I do the check ups more often than people without HPV? And then how often?

Hope there's help to find:)
Sabrina from Denmark


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Dr. Robert Wascher , MD
replied on January 23rd, 2009
Cervical Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Answer A5490
Gardasil is a recombinant protein vaccine that protects against 4 strains of the HPV virus, and is currently only approved in the USA for girls/women from 9 to 26 years of age (I am not sure about its approval status in Denmark, however).

When you say that you were diagnosed with HPV 10 years ago, I am not sure how that diagnosis was made. If you already have premailgnant changes of the cervix (intraepithelial neoplasia), then the vaccine is not likely to provide you with any clinically useful protection (that is to say, the vaccine does not offer any benefit against already established/acquired strains of HPV in the cervix).

Given all of the factors that you describe, the HPV vaccine will likely offer you much less benefit than if you had received it at a younger age, and before you were exposed to HPV. That said, only you and your gynecologist can arrive at a proper risk-to-
benefit assessmment in your individual case, and so I recommend that you further discuss this issue with him/her.

As for the frequency of your Pap tests, that too is for you and your physician to decide. Certainly, if you already have intraepithelial hyperplaisa, then your doctor may wish to monitor you more than once per year.

I hope that this response has been helpful to you.

Sincerely,


Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS


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