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Comment by gorfian_robot | Hacker News Reader

this is nice side benefit. but when you hit 50 you want the shingrex (two shots) vax ASAP. you def do NOT want shingles.

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I 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.

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.

There's been a few studies that found increase in shingles as the chicken pox vaccine became more widespread in the US, actually. With the usual caveat that correlation is not causation.

How was the study done?

If the vaccine became available in the 90s, and it was given to kids mostly, those people are 40 at most now, so how is the increase in shingles measured? More cases when younger? More older people getting it?

Thinking about it within this context doesn't make much sense.

The increase in shingles is in people who weren't vaccinated as kids. People who were vaccinated as kids and never got infected don't get shingles at all AFAIK.

Ok.

So this is why earlier in the thread they said, less wild chicken pox, more shingles, because immune system goes stupid as there is no wild chicken pox?

I had chicken pox as a kid, the vaccine became available in my country in 98, several years after, so it seems I'm screwed for shingles.

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.

I’ve self medicated with OTC acyclovir before getting a stronger prescription and it worked quite well. The trick was to diagnose quickly, the tell was the itching wouldn’t stop even while scratching.

Pro tip: keep some cold sore oral medicine at hand.

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 had shingles across my back in 7th grade. I remember at the time being told since I didn’t have chickenpox as a kid that led to my shingles. I was also told that once you have shingles you are immune. I have since learned both are not true. I also will get pain in the same location that my shingles started when under great stress.

I got the shingles vaccine last year.

I thought I was the youngest but I was 16. You win.

How old are you now? Did th vaccine help your symptoms?

57 now. I have had such an abrupt life style change that I no longer experience stress like I did. I don’t know if the vaccine helped it’a been less then a year.

I never had the chickenpox as a kid, either. The doc shrugged and noted that I obviously had the virus in my system, so I must have had a sub-clinical case. I recall that when we were young, my sister had a very mild case of chickenpox, so I assume that I got some exposure from her even though at the time assumed I managed to avoid it.

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.

For me it was a rash on my hands, and I thought it was my dogs leash. It was not until I got the uh blisters that my wife told me what I probably had, and it was too late by then unfortunately. The nerve pain is not worth it. I would have gotten the shot immediately had I known early enough. To make matters worse, I think I went to a family event, and the AC where we were staying had just died, so my itchiness was through the roof in South Florida. Nothing was as awful as the random nerve pain though, I cannot imagine being 50+ and getting the nerve pain.

Shingles is what sent Sen Feinstein on the downward spiral.

I got it on my scalp at 17. That so sucked. My GF got it on her face at 55. And doctors were really concerned it would spread to her eyes or ears.

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.

Neighbouring country here, it’s a private vaccination but the companies are pretty forwards about it being available. But you do unfortunately have to wait until you’re 50.

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.

I know one of my wife's childhood friends she got it at like 17 too. What was really interesting is her parents never had chickenpox, and they never caught it from them or something like that? Her brother also never caught it. There's some weird immunity to it I suppose or maybe it doesn't affect everyone the same.

Having had the pleasure of having it once already, in my 30s, it drives me nuts that I have to wait to vaccinate against it. Maybe the sickest I've ever been.

If it offers consolation, I share your story and just developed it a second time recently (about 7 years after the first, brought on by overtraining again).

Being familiar with the prodrome and early symptoms, I was able to get treatment way sooner than I did the first time. Between that and perhaps having a more primed immune system, this second encounter was far shorter and less intense.

Still not fun, and I'm hoping it'll earn me early access to the vaccine, but I'm more optimistic about it being muted if that doesn't happen and it comes back a third time.

This was definitely a huge factor for me. Since it was on the skin I waited for a dermatologist when I should have gone to any doctor immediately, I'm sure it would have been fairly clear since I eventually was able to suss out that it was shingles on my own before I got to the dermatologist.

Shingles sucked lol, definitely not a great time.

Get your GP to prescribe it! You can get it under 50, just need a prescription.

(I had shingles in my 20s; it sucks; I got shingrix in my 30s by Rx.)

I have a few friends in the US that haven't been able to pull this off

Absolutely true. And note that there apparently are antivirals available to help mitigate it and should be obtained promptly upon the outbreak.

I didn't know this and now after having shingles I have postherpetic neuralgia and am cursed with chronic pain for the rest of my life. It's not bad enough to check out, but it certainly isn't fun.

> shingrex (two shots)

Huh. Well that's good to know. I got the shot in April, but unless I am already getting very forgetful, my doctor did not mention a second shot. And I haven't gotten any calls from them about it (they are normally proactive about the routine things, so this is a little bit of a surprise).

So if it's always a two-shot regimen, I need the second one ASAP. It's almost 8 months now since I got the first one. Thanks to you I just sent my doc a note to find out.

My PCP told me to hold off until late 50s on the argument that there's no indication for boosters, and if I were to live a long, full life that the protection would be waning as I enter my more vulnerable years.

I understand the argument and it makes sense on paper, but this doesn't seem to be a general sentiment.

I looked this up recently because I was vaccinated for it a couple years ago. What I found was that you're recommended to get a booster after 7 years (my doctor said around 10 years when I got the shot).

This is counter-intuitive for me. Immune system senescence is a thing. Naively I would assume it should be better to get it early, as a younger immune system has better odds to react strongly to the antigen, providing long lasting protection. Often the elderly organism doesn't react, or the reaction is too weak, to vaccine stimulation. E.g. see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01652...

If I was worried about that at all I'd just get another shot in my 60s or 70s, whether it is "indicated" or not.

My PCP made the same argument (which I wrote much less clearly than you did in another comment). My sister-in-law had it last year (at 43) and she was miserable. Rolling the dice on this scares the willies out of me.

I got Shingles around age 30 which is pretty uncommon. I was really lucky, it presented as rash on my upper back, more on one side than the other. I did not know what it was and I had no pain or itching. One day I got a mild fever out of nowhere. The fever went away pretty quickly and it wasn't until a few days later when the blisters started popping that I felt horrible pain but that was only for the better part of half a day. The rash completely healed and I have no remaining issues from it that I'm aware of. I'm so fortunate I had a mild case and I would hate to get it when I am older. My doctor said it's unlikely to reoccur now before I get the vaccine at 50, thank goodness.

my dad (who has had the shingrex) sometimes still gets a mild case on his legs and when it does it is too painful to have anything touch his legs. no pants, not even a sheet.

my mom (who passed before shingrex) got a bad case in one eye and went blind in that eye.

so nice that kids have been getting the chickenpox vaccine for a while now and shouldn't have to deal much with shingles as the age.

Get it before 50. Ask your GP to prescribe; they can and will. The 50 cutoff is stupid.

Agree shingles isn't nice. I had it a couple of years ago aged 59. It can be brought on by covid weakening the immune system.

Can you say you’re immunocompromised to get it younger?

You can get your GP to prescribe it. The 50 cutoff is just the age you can get it without a prescription.

i thought the vaccine in the study isn't shingrex.

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