Gardasil and hair loss

Oh my goodness.....my daughter, age 17, had her first injection in June 2008, started losing her hair w/in a month. We thought it was form straightening, some high lightening etc. She had blood work done which showed she was anemic...strange, as 2yrs prior her blood work was stellar, and she had not changed her diet, or physical activity. She increased her iron and protein intake (along w/ supplements).....three months later, and after her second injection, iron was still anemic....worse actually, and her hair loss significant.I found this website last night....and I am floored......I called MERCK today and spoke to a representative wh o was not aware of the hair loss issue, but said that in their case studies, Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia was a side effect.....which leads to hair loss itself.....so I am researching now what to do next.....anyone else have this issue??????

I am a 22 year old, healthy female and received my fist two shots last September. By November, I began to notice my hair falling out, which became more excessive in December, prompting me to receive blood tests for thyroid problems, nutritional imbalances, etc. Everything came back negative and I self diagnosed the problem to be a hormonal imbalance caused by my birth control (which was hard to believe being that I had been on it for two years with no hair loss). I stopped the pill the end of January and my hair loss coincidentally stopped as well. I received my third shot in April, and sure enough the same devastating hair loss began two months later, which is classic with drug induced alopecia (hair loss). I am CONVINCED that Guardasil has caused this devastating reaction that has caused me to loose half my head of hair. It is October and I am still experiencing significant hair loss. This vaccine has caused me nearly a year of emotional turmoil over my thinning hair.

If you know of anyone developing alopeica areata(hair loss which causes bald spots on the scalp) after receiving the Gardasil shot, please call and report to Merck at 1-800-444-2080. They must be made aware of all of the symptoms associated with this shot.

my 12 year old daughter received 2 shots and we noticed a bald spot on the back of her head. A couple weeks later, it is getting worse, she now has at least 3 bald spots. She has very fine hair and is trying really hard to hide the bald spots, 2 in the front of her scalp. I know this is a result of the Gardasil shot. She will not be getting the 3rd shot. All of the doctors recommend this shot. Its only been out on the market a few short years, and i believe more research is needed. My daughter is to the point of tears every morning trying to fix her hair to cover up the bald spots. A dermatologist has diagnosed her with alopecia areata. There are new spots appearing all the time and I am worried that she will lose all of her hair.

OMG! My daughter is 15 and received her first Gardasil shot in July, perfectly health, very active teenager. Recently we noticed hair loss in the forward part of her scalp. I'm not positive it is from the vaccine but after reading all the postings on this site I will be calling the doctor first thing tomorrow to cancel her 2nd shot - scheduled for 9/18. Thank you all for your comments. I urge other parents to do the same.

After having the third shot I noticed my hair began falling out (July 2007). It is now over a year later and after having numerous blood tests, visiting a dermatologist and doing tons of research, I have concluded that gardasil must be causing this. My hair continues to fall out, I have bald areas around the crown of my head and my mood is very depressed by this. I also experienced soreness in my legs and joints but these are not constant. My periods also are out of whack. They can be between 28-50 days apart. I would not recommend anyone getting this vaccine. I wish my OBGYN had not sold me on it. I was 31 when I got it but she said age didn't matter, she said one day insurance companies would cover this vaccine for all women no matter what age they are. I paid $190.00 a shot and now I have a thin head of hair that may one day soon be bald if it doesn’t stop falling out. I think they should take this vaccine off the market. If anyone else has had severe hair loss, has it stopped falling out after a certain point?

well this is my first time hearing about these conditions. i was just aware of it by my mother when i told her ive had these lympth nodes by my pelvic area for about a month which is a month later after my last injection of the gardasil shot. throughout my entire injections ive nevered experience any sie affects not untill my last injection but my side affect are the lympth nodes. the story my mother had told me was about a girl around my age(16) who had gotten paralyze from the injection once she discover her lympth nodes but difference with her and i,she had soo much pain frm themas in pain to walk maybe swelling had occurred. As i read through all the articles of women and teens had experience such horrible side affects from this injection i have came to realize after my second shot ive myself experience hair loss an as of right now my hair is so thined out that when i pick up my hair there bald patches in th front but question is could this be a gardisil disaster? see i didn't worry much about it due to family memeber will constantly tell me no more hairspray or anything and let my hair down because too much of all of it could be the cause of my hair falling out. but till this day i am still losing an enormous amount of hair even after my injections of the shot. should i be worried or should i wait it out as i was??
-ally

I received my first shot of Gardasil in January 2007. It could have started sooner, but about a month later my hairdresser noticed a bald spot in the back of my head. I rushed back to my ObGyn and asked her if the Gardasil could be the cause as nothing else had recently changed. She said that she had not heard of this, but she referred me to a dermatologist. I asked him if my hair loss had anything to do with the Gardasil. He replied that I had Alopecia areata and one thing had nothing to do with the other. He advised that I continue with the Gardasil and that he would start treating me for the alopecia. I wish that I would not have listened. I don't know what would have happened if I had stopped then, but I didn't I proceeded with the treatment to the end now over half of my head is bald!!!
I don't know what to do. I keep going back to the dermatologist for treatments for the alopecia, but it just keeps getting worse.
If anyone has had a similar experience and would like to share or has found some other treatments that work, please post a reply.

Melissa

I received my first Gardasil shot on May 5, 2008 and about two days later I began to notice I was losing a lot of hair. I didn't fret because I had just gotten done taking finals and had been stressed to the max. I figured it was just my body responding to the stress. I have a lot of hair so it didn't phase me one bit. A week progressed and I would lose gobs of hair when I took out my hair band, brushed my hair, washed my hair, dried my hair. Now May 17, 2008, nearly 2 weeks later, my hair is half of what it used to be. I am freaking out. When I say I have lost alot of hair, I mean I can ball up the amount that comes out after a typical shower and it is about the size of a golf ball. I have not introduced anything new in my diet, nothing has changed, and I am not stressed. I am convinced this is due to Gardasil. Has anyone else experienced hair loss? If so, for how long? I am really scared.

After receiving my second vaccination I discovered pimples on my scalp, followed by hair loss. This condition is still reoccurring eight months later. Although doctors say this has nothing to do with Gardasil, it happened almost immediately after the second injection.