MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) Vaccine
When recommended: If you have a record of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s or later, you do not need to be revaccinated. If you were vaccinated prior to 1968 with a vaccine other than the live vaccine, you should be revaccinated. Generally, anyone 18 years of age or older who was born after 1956 should get at least one dose of MMR vaccine unless they can show that they have had either the vaccines or the diseases. Women should wait at least four weeks after the vaccine before trying to conceive.
What you should know: If you were born in 1956 or earlier, you do not need the MMR vaccine because you were most likely exposed to the diseases themselves in your youth. If you have had one or two of the conditions that the MMR vaccine prevents, but not all three, you should still get the MMR vaccine if you didn't as a child. The reason? Single vaccines for the individual diseases are no longer available. If you are already immune to one or two of the conditions, and you receive the MMR vaccine, your immune system will simply kill off the vaccine virus against the disease you've already had. But, if you were susceptible to measles, mumps, or rubella, the vaccine will replicate and trigger that immune system to protect you from those diseases in the future.
Possible side effects: Pain at the injection site, fever and, less commonly, a rash one to two weeks after receiving the vaccine.
