The 32-year-old Kim Vossenberg from Utrecht was also too old for the vaccine. When she was 30, she did a Pap smear, and it showed she has the HPV virus. “I really thought: what’s happening to me now?”
She then had a loop excision, in which tissue is removed from the cervix. For the next three years, she had to do a check-up every six months. “That was especially tough mentally: you’re in that mill every time.” She had no physical complaints. She had to be checked again two weeks ago. The HPV virus is now gone. “I cried tears of happiness then. I can’t describe how relieved I felt then.”
New this year is that boys are also being called up for the HPV vaccine. 19-year-old Mirko from Leerdam says via Instagram that he thinks it is wise that boys now also receive an invitation. “If this vaccine also happens to work against other cancers caused by this virus, that’s just a bonus, isn’t it?”
However, he believes that there is still a lot of uncertainty. “I haven’t heard of any real side effects that could be for boys. I do know that when the girls in my class in 8th grade got the call, they refused the shot because of the risk of becoming infertile.”