Hello, I have been HPV positive the last three annual smear tests, and the latest one, this year, came back also with borderline changes.
I recently had a colposcopy and punch biopsy, which thankfully came back clear for cancer or CIN (but the letter stated that it did however pick up HPV changes, which the consultant pointed out again can resolve on its own accord).
Obviously very relieved, but I’m now on a mission to deal with the HPV, like so many of us.
I’ve found this forum so incredibly helpful (thank you) and am going to look into AHCC supplements - but I did wonder about going back to my GP and asking about the vaccine. I am 40 years old, so the vaccine wasn’t available to me when I was younger, but I do remember reading something along the lines of the vaccine helping/stimulating your immune system to get rid of it. Does anyone have any experience of having it the vaccine (whilst having HPV)? Or any other thoughts/advice. Thank you!
Hi @Lujh
The problem with the vaccines, they arnt proven to help with strains we already have… they are only available through the NHS upto the age of 25 for women as they are preventive vaccines rather than therapeutic (you would need to go private and pay for it yourself) once we hit that age they assume we already have atleast 1 strain so the vaccine wouldnt be as effective
Some people believe because the vaccines make antibodies against the targeted strains, it can help with clearance and there is evidence it can help with high grade lesion regression the strain has caused but not the virus itself… however because these vaccine dont actually help with the strain, there are therepeutic vaccines in the works, so if these vaccines that we have now really did help with our current strain there would be no need to make these new vaccines
Also be careful on the AHCC, there are lots of fake products out there especially through amazon and on the cheap, but please note all the data that is available on this supplement is based off a study of only 50 women in 10 years and the results can be classified as biased as the funding was payed for by them… anything that claims to clear HPV is controversial as its not entirely clear whether it was the supplement or just purely coincidental that it cleared when it did… however all this being said just because its biased and controversial doesnt mean its false, the trial results were positive, anything that can boost our immune system and if we can afford it, theres no harm in it the only thing it may hurt in the long run is your bank balance (i tried it for a full year and it did nothing for me in terms of clearance, my CIN even progressed higher within my yearly follow up)
If you do take it, make sure its the real one… the real ones have “AHCC®” on the bottle and dont come from china xx
Hi @Lujh
I completely understand where youre coming from re having the vaccine. Im 40 and was too old for the vaccine. I was hpv positive for 3 years, in that 3rd year unfortunately they diagnosed me with cc stage 1, so ive been interested in the vaccine. I have read that it could be beneficial in combatting the strains we havent had but not the strain we have had. Not a live vaccine, its uses proteins that would try and make our immune system to fight against it so thankfully it shouldnt give us it! I think theres a post on jo’s about it being our choice whether to have it or not and that includes after cc. Trouble is, like with the ahcc aspect theres just not enough known and i dont know anyone who has had it, maybe ladies on here have and id be interested in their experience too. My specialist nurse said she had never been asked about the vaccine before but then again she firmly believed that hpv is gone now that ive had a hysterectomy but unfortunately it can still cause other cancers. So it is a bit of a grey area and no one knows enough about it, just not enough money in researching it for long time hpv sufferers. I am going to speak to my consultant about it once ive recovered properly from chemo so will try and update here if he says anything about it. It will have to be private, think its about 500 quid and boots and superdrug do it (if youre from the uk)
Heres the link to jos where it talks about it a bit
https://www.jostrust.org.uk/information/hpv-vaccine/private#:~:text=It%20is%20your%20choice%20whether,you%20against%20other%20HPV%20types.
Hi! I did a LOT of reading about the vaccine before I got my first jab this summer. I’m mid-30s so also missed out on school vaccination for it
A lot of the confusion seems to lie around the idea of dormancy or clearing HPV. From the information I read for original trials of Gardasil 4 (the one before Gardasil 9) the vaccine helped to reduce CIN in people who had been vaccinated when they were HPV negative whether or not they had antibodies to HPV. In the case of people who had antibodies to HPV the effect was less.
In people who were HPV positive at time of the evidence was less clear however the data could possibly be skewed by people who had CIN at the time of vaccination. But with dormancy who knows if the people who were negative were really negative or just dormant??
I have not seen any studies about it stimulating the immune system, I would love to see this!
In the end I decided to get the first of my jabs from Superdrug. I haven’t decided whether or not to have 2 doses or 3 doses
