A respected British professor doesn’t believe Covid-19 vaccines cause menstrual changes but advocates a thorough investigation, to ease the minds of worried women.
Dr. Victoria Male is a faculty member of the Department of Medicine at London’s Imperial College who lectures on reproductive immunology. In a British Medical Journal editorial published today, Male called for a scientific study to determine if vaccinations cause changes to menstrual cycles.
More than 30,000 reports of changes to periods and unexpected vaginal bleeding have been made to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA is the British equivalent of our Food and Drug Administration.
“Most people who report a change to their period after vaccination find that it returns to normal the following cycle and, importantly, there is no evidence that covid-19 vaccination adversely affects fertility,” Male said. “In clinical trials, unintended pregnancies occurred at similar rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.”
The MHRA evaluation of yellow card reports doesn’t support a link between covid-19 vaccines and changes to menstrual periods since the number of reports is low compared to the number of vaccinated people. Male said the way yellow card data is collected makes firm conclusions difficult and that is why a rigorous scientific study is needed.
“Vaccine hesitancy among young women is largely driven by false claims that covid-19 vaccines could harm their chances of future pregnancy,” said Male. “Failing to thoroughly investigate reports of menstrual changes after vaccination is likely to fuel these fears. Clear and trusted information is particularly important for those who rely on being able to predict their menstrual cycles to either achieve or avoid pregnancy.”
Male believes clinical trials provide an ideal setting to differentiate between menstrual changes caused by vaccination from those that occur anyway, but participants are unlikely to report changes to periods unless specifically asked.
“Information about menstrual cycles and other vaginal bleeding should be actively solicited in future clinical trials, including trials of covid-19 vaccines,” she said.
Male also wrote about links between vaccine antibodies and pregnancy in a commentary published earlier this year by the online magazine Nature.
“In December 2020, a blog post appeared online claiming, falsely, that a senior employee at Pfizer was concerned that antibodies elicited by COVID-19 vaccines could attack the placenta,” Male wrote, adding that even though the post was quickly removed, the rumors it started continued to spread and a survey found that more than a quarter of young women in the United Kingdom would decline the vaccine, citing concerns about its effect on fertility.
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