Women's Health: Cervical Cancer and HPV vaccine Gardasil

"I wanna be one less, o-n-e-l-e-s-s!" Is this song permanently lodged in your brain? Do the words "Tell Someone" have new meaning? You have pharmaceutical company Merck to thank. These slogans are from its commercials aiming to raise awareness about the link between HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) and cervical cancer and Merck's HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Before this connection was discovered, we didn't know what caused cervical cancer and the only way to know you had it was through a pap test. Kim, 43, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1993. Throughout her treatment, there was no mention of HPV and it wasn't until years later (after beating the cancer) that she realized the cause.

"I didn't even know HPV caused cervical cancer until I saw those commercials; my doctor didn't even tell me when I had it," Kim says. "I had never even heard of HPV until the commercials and I read an article about it and said, 'Oh, I guess that's what I had.'"

Many women don't know much about HPV until it affects them, even though as many as 80 percent will acquire HPV at some point in their lives.