March 2013

Leaving the Hospital After Childbirth: The Ultimate Roll of Shame

Published on March 30, 2013

1728 views

Childbirth. It seems unreal. Like only a hot minute ago you were in some run-down club with all your best buddies, shaking your size-4 bod while tossing back drinks with hilarious names like “Sex on a Beach” and “The Slippery Nipple.”

Now you’re plopped like a saggy, baggy rag doll in a wheelchair, holding a wilting bouquet of flowers from your mom, blinking in the relentless sunshine blaring down on the local hospital.

What…the…hell?!?

It’s called “The Roll of Shame” and you’re on it, Girl. You’ve just had your delightful childbirth marathon session—a one-night stand chock full of humiliating medical intervention and synthetic drug after synthetic drug to induce-then-subside a woman’s natural body function. Your door prizes apparently seem to be a few maxi-pads (semi truck-length), a squirt bottle, extreme despisement of your idiotic husband, who’ll now wrestle with the infant car seat like the worst WWF match-up ever, while your hair falls from your head in cute little clumps, hormones wage a Stalinesque war on your life, and two porn star-sized tits full of milk ache for a baby who just wants to lay comatose in your lap—a baby who’ll then wake up with a horror movie scream due to the built-in radar he or she innately possesses, which will sense the very second your balding head hits the heavenly pillow.

Right now you just can’t wait to simply get home, return to the comfort of your own bed, scarf down a bowl of Lucky Charms (even dog food would suffice after you’ve eaten hospital food for days on end) and then quietly and efficiently murder your husband—not because your hormones are out of control, but because he’s just so damn useless! You could use that weird breast pump contraption to clock him over the head with… or scald his sleeping face with that expensive baby wipes warmer… or bludgeon him with those new porn star-sized tits.

The options are limitless, really. But your time isn’t.

After all, you have your first postpartum BM to eagerly look forward to. Move aside, Frankenstein episiotomy stitches! Get your finger on the trigger of that squirt bottle, say your prayers and PUSH!!!

Mazel Tov.

PCOS, Pregnancy, Metformin and Vitamin B12 Deficiency

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on March 27, 2013

8247 views

PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome is one of the most common hormone disorders in women. It is marked by a triad of symptoms that include: cardiovascular, metabolic and steroid hormone disturbances. Type II diabetes is common in PCOS and Metformin is the drug of choice to treat PCOS – related Type II diabetes.

In recent years, clinicians and researchers have begun to observe vitamin B12 deficiency in Metformin users. First thought to be a short term problem, researchers are now finding that with long term metformin use not only does the B12 deficiency persist, but it grows. Left alone long enough, vitamin B12 deficiency leads to a host of conditions, many that Metformin was supposed to prevent, including:

Increased rates peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain and numbness that leads to all sorts of problems for diabetics)
Pernicious anemia (the body can’t make enough red blood cells because of a B12 deficiency; can be fatal if not treated).
Cognitive deficits with associated white matter hyperintensities and total brain volume decline
Elevated homocysteine levels (marker for cardiovascular disease and stroke)

For women, especially of reproductive age, B12 deficiency can be particularly troubling, if not downright dangerous. Vitamin B12 deficiency during pregnancy leads to an increased incidence of neural tube defects and anencephaly (the neural tube fails to close during gestation – anencephaly pictured above) . Once thought to be solely related to folate or folic acid deficiency (vitamin B9), researchers are now finding that B12 has a role in neural tube defects as well. Many women on Metformin are coming into pregnancy vitamin B12 deficient.

This is where it gets tricky. Metformin is used in women with PCOS to reduce insulin sensitivity. Metformin also tends to regulate ovulation for PCOS women and was believed to help women get pregnant (though the data here are mixed here as well). Without regular ovulation, conceiving is near impossible and so the fact that Metformin might have helped with ovulation had been seen as a breakthrough for previously infertile PCOS women. Reproductive endocrinologist embraced this new found fertility tool and as one might expect, the requisite studies (read marketing documents) flooded the esteemed peer-reviewed journals to proclaim the benefits of this new wonder drug. No wait, Metformin is not a drug, it’s a new vitamin – Vitamin M.

We now have a drug that is given liberally to women who become pregnant and then continued across the pregnancy. The drug crosses the placental barrier and there are no studies to indicate either its safety or harm to the fetus. The drug causes significant vitamin B12 deficiency, which alone poses great risk to fetal development (neural tube defects) but who knows what vitamin B12 deficiency plus the endocrine disrupting effects Metformin will have on the developing fetal insulin or cardiovascular systems. Are we looking at more transgenerational effects? Metformin does not prevent maternal gestational diabetes (as was widely speculated) and increases pre-eclampsia, pulmonary embolism and other nasty pregnancy complications. And yet, the major patient organizations advocate for its use across pregnancy.

Have we learned nothing from thalidomide and DES? Apparently, not.

Photo credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

The Rise in Pitocin Induced Childbirth

by Denise McKee PhD

Published on March 25, 2013

3252 views

Labor is an exceptional, natural occurrence that a women’s body is perfectly designed for. And so is her brain. All day, every day the brain and body communicate with each other through hormones, pregnant or not. When pregnant, there is one hormone that talks a lot louder than the others called oxytocin. Oxytocin is typically referred to as the bonding, trusting or loving hormone. It’s synthesized in the brain and creates the life-long bond between mom and baby. Outside of pregnancy, it helps create bonds between lovers and helps us trust and connect with others in general. Simply put, it is THE LOVE HORMONE.

Oxytocin and Labor

A combination of complex mechanisms occurs prior to labor, which science isn’t close to completely understanding. But it is very clear a women’s body somehow knows exactly what to do on its own. It’s all about the timing. Together, a woman’s brain, body, and unborn baby decide when the time is right, and then bursts of oxytocin are released from mom’s brain. The oxytocin travels down to the uterus and induces contractions. Over time, baby can slide through the vaginal canal and into the world. When this special timing is disrupted, either artificially or by medical emergency, that’s when problems arise.

Pitocin and Induction

Pitocin, an artificial oxytocin, is a drug used to induce labor. In fact, it is used in over 50% of deliveries in the U.S. In some cases, it is used due to significant risks such as placental abruption, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia or chorioamnionitis. However, too frequently, a woman is pressured to induce her labor for reasons that are not health-related. A recent study found that for many inductions, physicians are medically unjustified in giving women oxytocin to induce their labors.

Inducing a woman’s labor that has not naturally began is not a matter that should be taken lightly. It is a medical intervention that poses a risk to women and their babies. When induced, a woman is given ptiocin, at a time when her body is not ready to deliver. Pitocin increases her chances of having excessive and painful contractions. The painful contractions may necessitate an epidural because her cervix doesn’t open properly. This can lead to a cesarean. Sometimes the mom and/or baby react harshly react to pitocin. The side effects for pitocin include: irregular fetal heartbeat, excessive contractions and postpartum hemorrhaging. These too can lead to a cesarean. One study found that induction of labor is associated with an increased risk of a cesarean section and hospitals with higher induction rates also have higher cesarean section rates. Another study shows that labor induction may increase chances of cesarean section by twofold.

The Brain to Body Connection

Rushing a woman’s labor along may not be the best option for her body either. A common scenario includes a woman first going into early labor at home. Once admitted to the hospital, her labor ceases. Why? Her instinctual brain is simply trying to process whether it is safe to give birth in this new environment or should she run for hills to save her newborn. In time, a woman’s brain can determine that it’s safe to have the baby and her labor will continue. But, hospital care givers may not be so patient. Instead, they hurry the process along with pitocin. In the end, mom and baby suffer.

Pitocin and the FDA

Like many medications given to pregnant women, appropriate studies have not been conducted to determine the proper dosing, safety or even efficacy. Among many criteria, different stages of labor must be tested and women with different pregnancy and health histories must be taken into consideration. This has not been done. In fact, oxytocin (pitocin) currently holds a black box warning from the FDA:

…not indicated for elective labor induction since inadequate data to evaluate benefit vs risk; elective induction defined as labor initiation without medical indications

This means that physicians are currently using women and their unborn babies as clinical study participants without their consent. Worse yet, most are not collecting any data to evaluate the safety or efficacy of this drug.

In a Nut Shell

Many women are given pitocin are unaware that they have the option to wait for their bodies to take their natural courses. Labor is a delicate process that consists of a balance between a woman’s hormone levels and her babies’. This process takes time. Unfortunately, once admitted to the hospital, too often women are not given this time and the intelligence of our bodies is dismissed.

Learn about labor and delivery. Once informed, you decide.

Hormones Matter^TM Medical Disclaimer: All material on this web site is provided for your information only and may not be construed as, nor should it be a substitute for, professional medical advice. To read more about our health policy see Terms of Use.

Everything I Needed to Know I learned from The Bionic Woman

by Lana Hanson

Published on March 22, 2013

3416 views

For a girl child in the 1970’s, the only thing better than receiving a brand new tin lunchbox or triumphantly getting to the bottom of the sharp, sun blistered all-metal playground slide was a brand new episode of The Bionic Woman starring that natural beauty, Lindsay Wagner. Backyards (before the streetlights came on and your mom hollered you home) were busy with pumped up little girls all acting out the amazing bodily feats they witnessed on their rabbit eared TV’s.

I know my K-mart blue-light-special dungarees got some healthy doses of dust while I pretended to use my bionic arm lifting the house of the family dog, or ran with my bionic legs in slow- mo, stringy blonde hair trailing behind just like that of my heroine’s. Finally, I’d imagine the camera lens zoning in on my bionic ear as I tucked a strand of wild hair behind it- JUST like good ol’ Lindsay. Her power was monstrous and she handled it gracefully all the while wearing a bit of humble lip gloss. I don’t think my little heart could’ve held any more devotion and gratitude.

But that was then and this is now. Today’s Bionic Woman might just be sporting a solid “Camel Toe” or pulling a car off a helpless victim with her savage strength while her “Muffin Top” fights an equal battle with the zipper and snap of her pants. Instead of a close-up of her bionic ear, we’d get an eyeful of her impressive “Crow’s Feet.” Her robotic legs would jump high enough to propel her over the exit of a gated rehab entrance, Dr. Drew be damned-or- at the very least- above known shorty Ryan Seacrest as he dramatically announces she is the next American Idol.

And so much for her counterpart “Six Million Dollar Man.” The extent of his impressive skills is how swiftly he presses the accelerator down the drive-thru lane and the finesse in the way he confidently orders his super-sized grease-fest. His robotic arm simultaneously shovels food from bag to mouth and steers down the freeway.

The innocence is…gone.

Turn on your TV at any given moment and you’ll be rewarded with feeling like a total asshole. Frighteningly perfect models give intense stares that fog your brain with wormy messages of “If you refuse to buy THIS mascara, THIS hair dye, THIS anti-wrinkle crème, you might as well dig your own grave!” Insecurity scares us into spending billions and slathering our faces and bodies with ingredients like whale sperm just to remind ourselves we are still vital.

Umm…HELLO?! Have we retained NOTHING our polyester pant-suited goddess taught us? Lindsay might flip a bionic bird for this disgusting display of sisterhood. The value of women is not hidden under a grey hair or a furry upper lip. We are needed for what we DO. After all, Betty Friedan and Mother Theresa weren’t exactly sex kittens, right?

Yet if the fat cat anti-aging industry had their way, we’d all be walking around resembling the infamous drag queen, Divine.

I don’t know about any of you, but I’m itching to put on some jeans, go out in this big mean world…and play- Ms. Wagner’s way.

Angela’s Endometriosis Post Operative Update

by Angela Wice

Published on March 21, 2013

2826 views

It has been two weeks since my endometriosis surgery and I feel better mentally, physically and emotionally. The surgeon was supposed to remove my left ovary and both tubes and a possible hysterectomy if there were complications. Remember, in my last post I begged for a hysterectomy to stop the pain. She didn’t do the hysterectomy, remove the ovary or tubes. Here is what happened.

In Post Op

When I woke up, I was curious as to what they found. I wanted to know if the hormone pills worked for the last seven years; if they had kept my endometriosis at bay. I also wanted to know if there was a bowel obstruction because then I wouldn’t feel crazy. I was doing enemas three times a week for the last three years because I couldn’t go. I wanted to know if there were adhesions on my bladder and ureters as I was having serious issues in that department including peeing myself because I had no sensation to go. I pretty much knew that bowel was stuck to my ovary on the left side and the ovary was also stuck to the uterus causing sex to be so painful.

There were complications. I didn’t have the hysterectomy as intended. The doctor didn’t take my tubes or left ovary. My right ovary was embedded into the pelvic floor which she did not detach as she told me it was “really, really, really stuck”. I had a lot of adhesions which were causing the bowel obstruction just like I suspected. I also had adhesions on both my ureters and bladder. My left ovary was stuck to uterus and bowels and the uterus was stuck to the colon. That was set free. She found only superficial endometriosis. This means that either all the injections and various pills I had been taking all this time somehow worked or it was the adhesions from the previous surgeries that were causing all of the pain.

As I lay in post op, as I have before many times, I asked the surgeon’s assistant for the details of my surgery; what to expect over the next couple of weeks. The surgeon was too busy to bother. Her assistant wasn’t very helpful either. I thought about all the women that have surgery for endometriosis and how helpless they feel afterwards. The doctors really don’t tell the patient anything – mine didn’t. (I’ll be posting an article about doctor etiquette next week). So I asked “Do I keep taking the pill continuously?”, “Why wasn’t the ovary detached?” Why was nothing taken as we discussed?” I learned nothing. Even with the phone call to the surgeon a week later. I guess I have to wait until our follow up appointment on April 15.

Recovery

Right now my bowels have been somewhat great. I am going every day or every other day. It did take a while after surgery. That made me nervous, but I seem to be doing okay now. I have random bowel pains but I suppose that could be the healing process.

With my bladder there was a 60% change. I am no longer peeing myself. I no longer have the urethral pain I was having or spasms and I am not nearly going as much as I was prior to surgery. However I am still going at least 15-20 times a day not 40+. I am still happy with this. It was really controlling my life and I couldn’t go anywhere. It was frustrating. Now at least it’s a little better.

I still have to wait to have sex so I am not sure how that is going to feel and in a way I am anticipating it. I am also nervous and scared that it won’t change a thing.

The healing process itself was very quick. My first surgery was extensive with deep pelvic floor dissection and had some complications with my bladder, but this time I was good. I could pee right away which was a great sign. The pain was not nearly intense as the last time. I was pretty much ready to go back to work in three days, whereas last time I wasn’t even okay after two weeks.

All in all, my recovery is going well. I am anxious to learn what the doctor found and what my prognosis is. I will keep you posted.

Beauty is Only Skin Deep – Tanning Basics

by Lynda Chang

Published on March 13, 2013

2907 views

This week marks spring season’s jump back into our lives (YAY!), and I celebrated by wearing a dress to work on Monday. Office mate said, “Nice legs, but you could use some sun.” I laughed and had to explain that I don’t tan because I avoid sun damage. I would rather look pale versus tan; appear sickly versus healthy. Think about that word play irony. The way to get that “healthy” tan is primarily via exposure to the sun, tanning beds or artificial topical tanning treatments, all of which are lower on the healthy totem pole by comparison to simply leaving our skin alone.

The amount of misinformation available online is hilarious. A simple Google search for “how do you get a tan?” revealed the answer, “what makes you tan is melon that works hard in your skin and gets a darker color.” Melon, eh? The mass majority know this is false. What is not hilarious is there are many who flock to tanning salons for what they believe is the safe alternative to baking in the sun.

What is Tanning?

A tan is basically injury to the skin’s DNA. The skin reacts to UVA exposure by darkening in an attempt to prevent further DNA damage. The darker the tan, the more the mutations, and with enough mutations come skin cancer. Here’s how it works.

Ultraviolet (UV) rays damage the skin’s cellular DNA, and excessive UV radiation produces genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer. UV radiation is considered the main cause of nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC), including basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). More than a million worldwide and 250,000 Americans are affected by skin cancer each year. Despite our wealth of knowledge as it relates to protecting our skin from the sun, many still seek that “healthy tan.”

UVB rays cause surface sunburns and vary by season, location and time of day. They are most intense in the U.S. between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM from April to October. While intensity varies, they can still burn and damage skin year-round, especially at high altitudes and on reflective surface. Snow or ice can reflect up to 80 percent of the ray. What does this mean? You get hit twice with the rays even during winter. One bit of good news is UVB rays do not significantly penetrate glass.

UVA rays are a different beast. They attack deeper connective tissue and trigger long-term damage such as skin cancer, wrinkles and sunspots. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, they are present with relatively equal intensity during all daylight hours year-round, and can penetrate clouds and glass. Recent studies show that UVA rays damage skin cells called keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis, where most skin cancers occur.

What about Tanning Booths?

Tanning booths primarily emit UVA rays. The high-pressure sunlamps used in tanning salons emit doses of UVA as much as 12 times that of the sun. Statistically tanning salon users are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma. According to recent research, first exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent.

Alarmingly, a recent congressional report exposes the tanning industry’s misleading messaging to teens. Specifically, Committee investigators found:

Nearly all salons denied the known risks of indoor tanning
90% stated that indoor tanning did not pose a health risk
51% denied that indoor tanning would increase a fair-skinned teenager’s risk of developing skin cancer
Salons thought the link between indoor tanning and skin cancer as “a big myth,” rumor,” and “hype”
80% claimed that indoor tanning was beneficial to a young person’s health
Several salons even said that tanning would PREVENT cancer

Other health benefit claims included:

Vitamin D production
Treatment of depression and low self-esteem
Prevention of and treatment for arthritis
Weight loss
Prevention of osteoporosis
Reduction of cellulite

The report suggested that salons used a variety of approaches to minimize the health risks of indoor tanning, especially when marketing to young girls. Consequently, the general perception of teenaged girls was that “it’s got to be safe, or else they wouldn’t let us do it.”

The Skin Cancer Foundation is currently campaigning to generate letters of support urging the FDA to regulate tanning beds and ban those under 18 from using them. The Foundation feels the tanning salon industry’s misleading practices for the sake of revenue are putting the lives of people, particularly young women, at risk.

My feeling is we all make choices in our lives by weighing the risks involved, however, we deserve to be properly informed. I definitely partake in my share of risks, but I learned and chose early on to avoid skin damage by using SPF products in lieu of makeup (see here for all natural sunscreen products) or a “healthy tan.” For me, pale trumps skin damage or cancer any day. I shudder to think how many young women have already been affected by the myth that tanning beds are a healthy choice. Be proactive in staying informed. I can’t preach this enough. Beauty is only skin deep, and our true colors – tan or lack thereof – reveal the truth of what lies beneath it all.

Crowdsourced Women’s Health Research

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on March 12, 2013

20660 views

A dirty little secret in the world of women’s health – there are relatively few data guiding medical decision-making. Indeed, across all medical specialties the auspices of evidence-based are crumbling quickly in the face of open access and open science. Recent reports suggest less than 50% of all medical treatments have any data to support their efficacy. Of that evidence, much could be suspect given the rampant payments from pharmaceutical and device companies to physicians and other decision-makers, plus the well-documented publishing bias and even fraud plaguing the scientific publishing industry.

In women’s health, matters are even worse. Not only are evidenced-based, clinical practice guidelines nearly non-existent in Ob/Gyn (only 30% of practice guidelines based on data) and women still not included in early stage clinical trials in sufficient numbers, but regulatory agencies do not mandate gender analytics for new medications. The result, post market adverse events – think death and disabling injury – are more common in women than men.

Why do women die and suffer from adverse events at a much higher rate than men? Because most medications reach the market without having ever done the appropriate testing or analytics to distinguish why women might respond to said medications differently than men. Even in the lab, male rodents are used about 90% of the time.

What about medications developed specifically for women? These too are poorly understood, mostly because the outcome variables are not focused on the totality of women’s health. For example, it is important that oral contraceptives prevent pregnancy, but it is equally important that they don’t cause blood clots, stroke, heart attack or cancer. And if blood clots, stroke, heart attack or cancer are deemed acceptable risks for birth control (and I don’t think they are), then shouldn’t we know which pills are the most dangerous and which women are most at risk?

One cannot manage, what one does not measure and we don’t measure critical components of women’s health. We also don’t track adverse events or side-effects very well. Question: have you ever reported a side-effect to a doctor? Do you know if he/she reported it to the FDA, the CDC or any other adverse events registry? Probably not, and that is the problem.

If you knew you had a 20 times higher risk of stroke or heart attack for one medication versus another, would you choose differently? I bet you would, but as medical consumers, we don’t have that information. In many cases, those data don’t exist.

That’s where crowdsourced research comes in. At Lucine, the parent company of Hormones Matter, we think the lack of data in women’s healthcare is unacceptable. We know that the larger companies who sell these products have no motivation to gather or make public these type of data – too many billions of dollars are at stake – and so, it is up to us, the women who need safe health products, to be the change agents.

The simple act of completing surveys on critical topics in women’s health can and will save lives. Your data will tell a story. Add that to the data from hundreds, and hopefully thousands of other women, from all over the world and from all walks of life and we will be able to determine which medications, devices or therapies work, which ones don’t. We can give women the information needed to make informed medical decisions.

We are currently running four women’s health surveys, but plan on running many more. So check back regularly. If you qualify for any or all, take a few minutes and add your data. If you don’t qualify for these, share these surveys with your friends and family through social media. The more data we can gather, the more clear our medication choices will become.

Health Surveys for Real Women

Oral Contraceptives Survey

Oral contraceptives (birth control pills) are used by 98% of the female population at some point in their lives. They are prescribed for a myriad of reasons unrelated to pregnancy prevention. Sometimes they work; sometimes they don’t. Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew which brands of birth control pills worked for which conditions? Better yet, wouldn’t it great if we could avoid the pills that didn’t work, made a particular condition worse or had a higher than average side-effect profile? Take this survey if you have ever used oral contraceptives. Help determine which birth control pills are safest and have the fewest side-effects. You may save another woman’s life and health.

The Hysterectomy Survey

By the age of 60 one in three women will have had a hysterectomy. Hysterectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures for a range of women’s health conditions. For some conditions, hysterectomy works wonders. While, for other conditions it is only nominally successful. The purpose of the hysterectomy survey is to learn more about why hysterectomy works for some women’s health conditions and not others. We’d also like to learn more about the long term health affects of hysterectomy – does a woman who has had a hysterectomy have a higher or lower risk of other health conditions? Take this survey and help improve women’s health.

The Gardasil Cervarix Survey

Women and their physicians need more data about the side-effects of the HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. There is a lack of data about who is at risk for adverse events and whether certain pre-existing conditions increase one’s risk for an adverse event. There is also a lack of data about the long term health effects of these vaccines. The purpose of this survey is to fill that data void; to learn more about the risks for, and nature of, adverse events associated with each of the HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. Take this survey and help improve women’s health options.

The Lupron Side Effects Survey

Leuprolide, more commonly known as Lupron, is the GnRH agonist prescribed for endometriosis, uterine fibroids or cysts, undiagnosed pelvic pain, precocious puberty, during infertility treatments, and to treat some cancers. It induces a menopause like state stopping menstruation and ovulation. It’s widespread use for pain-related female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis or fibroids is not well supported with very few studies indicating its efficacy in either reducing pain or diagnosing endometriosis or other pelvic pain conditions. Conversely, reports of safety issues are mounting, especially within the patient communities. The Lupron Side Effects Survey was designed to determine the range, rate and severity of side-effects and adverse events associated with Lupron use in women.

All surveys are anonymous and participation is voluntary. More information about individual surveys can be found: Oral Contraceptives Survey, The Hysterectomy Survey, The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

Visit our Take a Health Survey page for new surveys and updates or better yet, sign up to receive our weekly newsletter for all the latest research and hot topics pertaining to women’s health.

Gardasil Research versus Marketing: The Reality of One Less

by Jordan Davidson

Published on March 11, 2013

3250 views

Back in 2006 when the Gardasil commercial first aired, the marketing mavens at Merck had us all humming along about how we wanted to be ‘one less.’ Now – 7 years and a myriad of articles, claims and additional research later, the question remains; what does it mean to be ‘one less’ and is it worth the price?

What is Gardasil? Gardasil is a vaccine approved by the FDA and recommended by the CDC as a preventative measure against four strains of HPV that are known to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases and 90% of genital warts. The vaccine must be administered over the course of a year via several injections. It is recommended for those who are not yet sexually active (i.e. younger girls, aged 9-12).

What is HPV and how is it related to Cervical Cancer? There are over 100 strains of HPV (Human papilloma virus) with approximately 30 of them being sexually transmitted. Research has found that, in rare cases, approximately 10 of those 30 strains can lead to cervical cancer. Most women are diagnosed with HPV via an abnormal Pap test. There is no cure for HPV and in most cases the infection goes away and the virus remains dormant within the body.

It is estimated that at least 20 million people in the US already have HPV; with about 50 percent of sexually active men and women at risk for acquiring a genital HPV infection during their lifetime. According to the CDC every year in the United States, about 10,000 women develop cervical cancer, and 3,700 die from it. Although cervical cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world, it ranks between 15th – 17th for cancer death in developed nations such as the US and Australia.

What do we know about the effectiveness of Gardasil? Unfortunately, the answer is not much. Despite information put forth by the US CDC, Health Canada, Australian TGA, and the UK MHRA, the efficacy of Gardasil in preventing cervical cancer has not been demonstrated. According to an article published in the Annals of Medicine, the longest follow-up data from phase II trials for Gardasil are on average 8 years. However, invasive cervical cancer takes up to 20 – 40 years after initial infection to develop into cervical cancer. Currently the death rate in the US from cervical cancer, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data (1.7/100,000), is 2.5 times lower than the rate of serious adverse reactions from Gardasil as reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) (4.3 per 100,000 doses)

Since the vaccine is so new, and follow-up trials less than a decade old, the long-term health risks of Gardasil are still widely unknown. Adverse side effects have included death, convulsions, syncope, paraesthesia, paralysis, Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), transverse myelitis, facial palsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, anaphylaxis, autoimmune disorders, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolisms, and pancreatitis.

Is it worth the cost? The vaccine only works against 4 HPV strains and annual pap screens are still needed to detect cervical cancer. The full injection sequence costs an approximate 400 USD, which is more than the cost of a pap screen. This nullifies any cost savings from the vaccine. In countries where cervical cancer deaths are the highest (Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana), the cost of Gardasil makes it an nonviable option. Current research suggests that by targeting other risk factors such as smoking, the use of oral contraceptives and chronic inflammation in conjunction with the already recommended and proven effective annual Pap test, global minimization of cervical cancer is likely – at equivalent or higher rates than those hypothesized for Gardasil.

For now, until more is known on the effectiveness and risks of Gardasil it may be better to be one more who goes for their annual exam and partakes in safe sexual practices than being an undetermined ‘one less.’

Hormones Matter^TM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with Gardasil and its counterpart Cervarix. If you or your daughter has had either HPV vaccine, please take this important survey. The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

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