You Can Still Get The HPV Vaccine As An Adult & Experts Say You Absolutely Should

It’s pretty well-established at this point: The HPV vaccine, which is meant to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus, is very good at its job. Precancer rates are down by 80% since the vaccine’s rollout, as Scary Mommy previously reported, thanks to its effective protection against HPV infection. But not everyone was the target age to be vaccinated when the shot came out in 2006, so it’s natural to wonder, can you get the HPV vaccine as an adult?

More than 42 million Americans are currently infected with HPV strains known to cause cancer, and 13 million more will contract HPV each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So, it’s exceedingly likely that anyone who is sexually active will be exposed to it at some point. For this reason, the CDC recommends all children — yes, girls and boys — be vaccinated at age 11 or 12 (though it can be given as early as 9). But what if your parents didn’t take you to get it, or it wasn’t available when you were that age, and you’re curious about it now?

Can you get the HPV vaccine as an adult?

If you look up the HPV vaccine and what ages to get it, you’ll see a lot of different numbers. There’s a reason for all of them, but in short, yes, you can get the HPV vaccine any time in life and still reap the benefits. The CDC now also says anyone who wasn’t vaccinated as a child should receive their shots through age 26. Folks 27 to 45 years old can talk to their physician about receiving it too, though it probably won’t come up unless you bring it up.

“The vaccine is thought to be most effective before the age of sexual contact when HPV is most likely to be contracted, hence the recommendation to vaccinate between the ages of 9 and 12,” says Dr. Electra Paskett, Ph.D., cancer control researcher at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

But the vaccine was initially FDA approved for people as old as 26, which is why you may see that age included in the CDC’s recommendations, says Dr. Deborah Goldfrank, M.D., FACOG, head of general gynecology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Now, it’s FDA-approved up to age 45. Even that doesn’t mean you can’t get it after age 45, though.

“So it’s only FDA-approved to age 45, although we don’t have any evidence that it’s dangerous for people over 45,” Goldfrank says. “It’s just that the studies that were done went to age 45. Certainly vaccines in general tend to be less effective as people get older and have less of a robust immune response to vaccines, but the downside seems to be minimal also. The HPV vaccine, there are hundreds of millions of doses that have been given and it seems to be a very safe and effective vaccine.”

Should you get the HPV vaccine if you’re already HPV-positive?

Yes, you should, experts say. The HPV vaccine distributed in the United States, called Gardasil-9, protects against new HPV infections from nine common strains. This includes the kinds most likely to cause cancer. So, even if you have one or two strains, you could still benefit from protection against the others. Since more than 90% of sexually active men and 80% of sexually active women will contract HPV in their lifetime, each new sexual partner you have brings the opportunity to contract a new strain, Paskett points out.

“Even if you’ve been exposed to some forms of HPV, the vaccine can still help protect you from getting additional strains of HPV,” says Goldfrank. “Now that the HPV vaccine is available up to age 45, it really is a good option for people who for whatever reason did not get vaccinated earlier.”

Just know that the HPV vaccine doesn’t treat existing HPV infections, Paskett says. It can only prevent new ones, which is why it “works best when given before any exposure to HPV,” she says.

So women and men should both get the HPV vaccine?

Yep! The HPV vaccine was initially developed and marketed to girls because of the strong link between the virus and cervical cancer. But today, we know that HPV can cause many other kinds of cancer in all people.

“Contrary to the public’s perception that HPV is only linked to cervical cancer, the virus is also linked to rising rates of tongue and throat cancer, penile, and anal cancers. The vaccine could help reduce risk of all these cancers long-term and should be talked about as a cancer vaccine versus an STI vaccine,” Paskett says. “The CDC estimates that timely HPV vaccination could prevent 90% of cervical cancers alone, and only about half of children who qualify for the vaccine have received it. Among them, more girls and women are being vaccinated than boys and men.”

It’s pretty remarkable to think of it that way: that we do actually have a vaccine that can prevent some kinds of cancer. A lot of kinds, actually. “The majority of cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus, penis and head and neck cancers, are HPV-related,” Goldfrank points out. That’s a pretty good case for sitting through a few extra shots, whether you’re 11 or 45.

“The vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of HPV infection by up to 90%,” says Paskett. “This is a powerful tool for cancer prevention that has only been available to us in the past few decades. We are seeing the impact of those vaccines now through the scientific data.”