alt Hacker NewsI already got it, apparently there's a weird uptick in men to the point where some doctors are like, nah you don't have that, and then sure enough they realize you do upon further inspection. For context I know men who have gotten it in their mid to late 20s I got it in my early 30s. I'm not sure what the cause is, but for additional context, Shingles is way more common in women.
So there might need to be more studies into shingles and why men are getting it more frequently and younger.
Replies
I got it last year, as a man in my early 30s. My doctor didn't believe me but his eyes widened as I showed him the rash. It took him one second to say that is shingles, with no doubt. If you get it you have to get to the doctor ASAP to get the antiviral medicine before it spreads. It is the most painful thing I have gone through.
I'm pretty sure I got is because of stress. I quit my job, sold my home and all my stuff to travel for a year. I was awarded shingles the week after handing in my resignation.
Add another datapoint here if you'd like, got it in my late 20s this year. Fortunately I caught it very early and didn't have as bad of a case as many here seem to have had. My doctor said it's not uncommon to have shingles as a young person, and when I researched it more I found studies that agree with some sibling comments re: lack of exposure to people with chicken pox making it more common.
Another data point. I caught it in my 60s.
I didn't know there's a vaccine. Nobody in healthcare here in Finland has mentioned it, so maybe it's not on offer.
Well sounds like I'm the youngest around here. I got it when I was 16/17. Honestly I kind of forgot about it for awhile but have weird nerve pain sometimes when I'm stressed now that I'm 41 so I assume it still lingers in me.
Looking to find out more about the vaccine and it's impacts on existing shingle victims.
Hello! Another datapoint here, both I and a friend of mine got shingles in our early 30s. I had to go to two different doctors because the first just assumed that it was "bad acne" (my shingles followed the trigeminal nerve across my face). Second doctor immediately clocked it as shingles. It was perhaps the second most painful experience of my life, not so much because it was intensely painful but because the pain was constant and resistant to relief.
I'm told that stress can cause shingles to flare up, in that stress also suppresses the immune system, and both my friend and I were going through one of the most stressful phases of our lives at the time, so I always chalked it up to that. Not a very strong hypothesis, though.
I've heard a theory that since the chickenpox vaccine for kids, natural exposure to the virus in the wild is way down, and our immune systems are more likely to forget about it. Not specific to men of course, but a possible explanation for an increase in shingles generally.