's of HPV that can cause cancer. Even if you already have contracted a high risk strain it will still help in preventing contraction of other.
Get the shot.
HPV is the causitive factor for 100% of genital warts and 99.8% of cervical cancer (and dysplasia.) There are over 100 strains of HPV and of those over 30 are genital strains - which are split into low risk strains and high risk strains.
The gardasil vaccine protects against 4 strains of HPV (2 low risk and 2 high risk) the 2 LR strains it protects against is responsible for 90% of genital warts, the two high risk strains is responsible for 70% of cervical cancer. While the FDA has only approved the vaccine for 9-26 year olds, Gardasil is trying to have it approved for up to 45 year olds.
As was mentioned above, the vaccine cannot protect you against any strain of HPV you may currently have but it can protect you from future exposure to strains 6, 11, 16 and/or 18 - if you do not already have them (and unlikely that you have all of them). LR_HPV does not cause cancer, high risk strains however have the potential to cause dysplasia/cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus, oral and even penis. It is important to remember though that having high risk HPV does not mean one will develop dysplasia/cancer it only means there is the potential.
The HPV vaccine is licensed (so far) for girls/women between 9 - 26 years of age. It is currently being studied for older women 26-45 but not yet 'approved'. However your doctor can give you the vaccine if you ask for it. (It has just been approved for boys/men age 9-26). I would go ahead and ask my doctor if he/she would give me the vaccinations.