Scientists recently debunked the link between the COVID-19 vaccine to infertility. They said it is a myth and there is no evidence that this vaccine results will make women infertile.
A Glamour report said, according to OB-GYN Jessica Shepherd of the University of Illinois at Chicago, while fertility was not particularly examined in the vaccine's clinical trials, no loss of fertility has been reported among participants of the trial, or among the millions of people who have already been vaccinated, and now indications of infertility arose in animal studies.
It's clever to have questions on medical care, not to mention read up before deciding what to put into the body, although there is no reason to think that the COVID-19 could lead to infertility.
Three of the top professional organizations today focused on fertility and pregnancy. These are the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Machine, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine.
Shepherd said that it is recommended that pregnant women get their vaccine, as well as those who consider getting pregnant.
The Myth-Making Rounds on Social Media
Despite the recommendations from professional groups, the myth that the COVID-19 vaccine may cause infertility in women has been making rounds on social networking sites.
This could be due to the fact that this year has been quite scary since there's more susceptibility to fear-mongering. More so, it's maybe because social media, together with other lovely things like pet pictures and product reviews, is great at disseminating misinformation.
For whatever reason, some people who usually believe in Science and listen to medical experts are buying into this myth.
COVID-19 Vaccine, No Effect on Women's Fertility
Posts may have been going around social media claiming that since Pfizer and Moderna, both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines teach the body to fight spike proteins, and since these latter-mentioned are also involved in gestation, the said vaccines could lead to pregnancy problems. Expert says, "That's not true."
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains, something identified as spike proteins is present on the COVID-19 virus's surface.
The mRNA vaccine is effective because it provides instructions for the cells to produce a harmless piece of such proteins.
When the immune systems recognize the spike protein's harmless version, they develop an immune response that shields one from COVID-19.
Afterward, the proteins are swiftly broken by the cells, which is a natural process cells are doing with proteins. And, even though the name mRNA sounds like DNA, this report specified, the vaccine is not interacting with DNA.
Senior director of infection prevention Lisa Maragakis from the Johns Hopkins, Lisa Maragakis, MD, and director of the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, Gabor Kelen, MD, also from the Johns Hopkins wrote the two spike proteins are totally different and unique, and getting vaccinated will not impact women's fertility.
Safe for Pregnant People
No vaccine test used pregnant participants. However, Shepherd noted, initial data on COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy have presented the safety of both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in over 30,000 patients who had pregnancies.
Shepherd talked about the peer-reviewed research, Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons, published in April, in the New England Journal of Medicine which studied data from more than 35,000 pregnant volunteers, whose ages ranged between 16 and 54 years, and have now been injected with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
The research did not show apparent safety indications which means, there were no patterns of adverse response to the vaccine.
Kelen and Maragakis emphasized that during vaccine trials for Pfizer, 23 participants became pregnant and none of them who got vaccinated experienced any miscarriage.
Related information is shown on CHI Health's YouTube video below:
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