alt Hacker NewsThe age gating of needing to be 50 years old to get the shingles vaccine is really obnoxious. I had shingles outbreaks twice in my life, one in my early 30's and once at 48. Obviously, both before 50 years old.
I had to argue with my doctor to prescribe the Shingles vaccine at 49. And when I had it in my 30s, nobody even bothered to give me any antivirals, which did exist at the time, or nerve pain relief.
After I had the shingles vaccine, nerve pain that I'd been suffering with every time I got the slightest little allergy or cold suddenly disappeared, and I haven't had it since more than a year later.
If you are under 50 years old, and had chickenpox, and especially if you've had one outbreak of shingles, force your doctors to prescribe the vaccine. It costs $100-$200 without insurance coverage, and it is worth it.
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I'm 48, in the US, and had chicken pox as a child.
After my 43 y/o sister-in-law had a debilitating shingles outbreak last year I asked my PCP about the vaccine. He stated that he was wary to prescribe it to be. His reasoning was something like:
There was a previous shingles vaccine that didn't work very well. It was found that it didn't offer long-term protection and the protection could not be improved with a booster. The current vaccine is still new and the long-term protection and ability to be extended by a booster are unknown. Since most of the worst outcomes of shingles correlate to old age it makes sense to defer the vaccination hedging against the failure of the vaccine to provide long-term protection and to allow more time to elapse to learn more about how the vaccine works long-term.
Edit: My PCP's general advice was to defer the vaccination as long as possible. He felt that 60 was reasonable.
I haven't looked into the veracity of any of his reasoning, but I am willing defer to his expertise and bide my time. My sister-in-law had a really bad experience, and I remember my grandfather having a terrible experience when I was a child. I'm definitely fearful and would like to prevent it.
> If you are under 50 years old, and had chickenpox
I'm 2 out of 3, any info on that scenario?
I ended up getting shingles when I was 17. Terrible and rare I heard but for the most part I've never had any major outbreaks since then.
I wasn't aware the shingles vaccine starves off nerve pain. I've noticed more nerve pain with pins and needles and neuropathy now that I'm 41 which I assume is what you are talking about. I used to think I was getting pre-diabetic before this as I wasn't aware of nerve flare ups being a thing given how young I was when I found out.
Has there not been any studies around this with those with shingles taking the vaccine and freeing them from their symptoms? First time I've heard this.