Never had chickenpox. Should I get shingles vaccine? Chicken / Egg

[terracore]

Thanks everybody who commented. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do but appreciate everybody's discussion.

[vladlensky]

I had chickenpox as a child back when people intentionally exposed their kids to it as early as possible. The common rationale was that it was better to go have the virus as a child and recover than as an adult, which could lead to much more serious complications. My spouse had it as an adult and it took over a month to recover with a few close calls with high fever, spots close to eye, etc.

Around age 21 after a busy summer of studying and travel, I got shingles. Fortunately enough, it only attacked my arm and I caught it early enough to take antivirals but I still wouldn't wish shingles on my worse enemy; it was excruciating and took a few weeks to completely recover. Some unlucky folks have long-term lasting nerve damage.

Given the option to take a vaccine for shingles, I would do it yesterday but there's an age requirement. If I could avoid the whole mess by vaccinating for chickenpox, I would have done that as well but it's a personal preference having gone through it as an adult.

[ohioaninsc]

I had a severe case of Chicken Pox when I was a little kid...recently my aunt age 62 had Shingles...I'm 42 now, but what age should I get the Shingles vaccine...because god knows I do not want to go through what she's been going through.

[wildflowers27]

Shingrix (the shingles vaccine) is a two-shot vaccine; the 2nd shot is given 2-6 months after the first shot. It is covered by insurance for people 50 and over. Not really an answer to your question, but here is a discussion on Shingrix from the retirement forum:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/reti...x-vaccine.html