As a nurse, I’m a firm believer in vaccines. And that’s even truer now that I’m a survivor of cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).

For years, I’d heard that most people my age had already been exposed to HPV, and I wondered how it might affect me. Still, I’d never had any problems, so I figured I was lucky.

Then, in May 2010, a routine Pap test came back abnormal, and everything changed. I...