« I can hit myself in my head, » says the woman who did not want a HPV prick as a teenager

What started with a non-fluff feeling with a group of gynecologists in Amsterdam UMC, was in one on Tuesday research Together with the Integral Cancer Center Nederland confirmed: less than one in six young women with cervical cancer has been vaccinated with the HPV vaccine, which protects against this form of cancer. This is evident from the medical records of 135 women who were diagnosed, all born between 1993 and 2010.

This means that their vaccination rate is considerably lower than in the entire population of women from the same age group. Of them, 55 percent at the age of fourteen was completely vaccinated against HPV.

As a teenager I could not imagine a potential danger ten or twenty years later

The study exposes a painful question: did the women who were already diagnosed with cervical cancer before the age of 30 as a teenager that might have prevented a vaccine? A tour of women who were the first to receive a call for this vaccine – they are now around thirty – it appears that the choice of then to not take the shot in the meantime. Especially now that stories are going around about peers with bad news. That happens to around fifty women under thirty a year.

For example, singer Emma Heesters announced this winter that she has cervical cancer and gets chemotherapy. Now for the first time the invitation is on the mat for the annual smear for the first time, in order to screen on a pre -stage of that cancer.

Turbulent

The vaccination campaign for the HPV prick started rather boisterous in 2009, because little was known about this new shot in society. All girls between the ages of thirteen and sixteen received a call for the vaccine. They were allowed to decide for themselves whether they wanted to get that, regardless of the opinion or conviction of their parents. The campaign fell prey to conspiracy theories and fear of long -term side effects. In the country where the vaccination rate for the national vaccination program at the time was far above 90 percent, only half of the girls came to get the HPV prick in the first years.

« As a teenager I could not imagine a potential danger ten or twenty years later, » says Nathalie Schram-Wesselink (28). At the age of thirteen she went to the vaccination location with her best friend. On the spot she still doubted if she would not participate with her girlfriend, but she stood firm. « There were conspiracy stories that you got cancer from that shot. »

My sister kept saying: Cancer is very, but cancer against which you could have done something is much worse

Now her decision gnaws. Cancer has been more common in her family for a few years. « That was not the case at the time, now it worries me. With today's knowledge I had chosen differently at the time, but mortality is still so far away for a child. ”

Kaylee Plette (31) can also hit herself in front of her, she says she did not go. « I was in class with girls from a year older. They didn't get a call and I did, so I concluded that the injection was not necessary.  » For a long time she thought that vaccination was no longer in the event of a later age, because she was told that you should not be sexually active for that. « Now it turns out to be wrong at all. If I had known that, I would have gone to a repeat campaign earlier. « 

Needles

Restful cells. That was two and a half years ago the result of the smear of Viola Prevoo (29). She went to the doctor because of abdominal complaints and now it is checked every six months whether the cells in her womb do not develop further into cancer.

« I was thirteen when I got the shot call, » she says. « My mother made the association with Softenon, an anti -disruption agent that swallowed pregnant women in the sixties and caused deformed limbs in babies. And I was afraid of needles, so those were enough reasons not to think about it further and not to take it, « says Prevoo.

The doctors keep asking if she has been vaccinated. She thinks it's a painful question. « Because with today's knowledge I wanted me to have done that. » Apart from the fear of needles and an adolescent urge to give up against her friends who did take the injection, Prevoo cannot actually come up with a good reason for her refusal. « The information was mainly aimed at parents then, but it would have helped me if they had told us something in the understandable language. »

Instagram

Better late than never, Vera van der Laan (31) thought Tuesday. She immediately shared her decision on Instagram. « In the waiting room for the HPV vaccination, which I skipped as a teenager », a photo of the yellow vaccination booklet on her lap. The reactions of peers came in.

« For a few years I have been confronted with cervical cancer, by stories from friends and in podcasts. » But during repeat campaigns she was always just too old to get the shot for free.

« After I had to make my first smear last year, my doctor told that vaccination still makes sense. Then I put myself over that amount and made an appointment.  » 2,019 euros is a lot of money, she thinks. « But my sister, who took the vaccine right, kept saying: cancer is bad, but cancer against which you could have done something is much worse. I had nothing against that. « 

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