Many menstruating people who have received their injections of the covid-19 vaccine report having a disturbed period and menstrual cycle. Two American scientists recently started an investigation to document these experiments.
Every day, more of the population is vaccinated against Covid-19. Fever, body aches, local pain… Several common and mild side effects have been reported. However, a significant side effect seems to have been forgotten: the impact on menstruation. On social networks, many menstruating people mention severe pelvic pain, spotting, irregularities in their cycle or even more abundant flow.
The possible impact of the vaccine on the menstrual cycle
On Twitter, medical anthropologist Dr Kate Clancy shared her experience with unusually heavy periods after the Moderna vaccine, and received a flood of similar testimony in response. With her former colleague, Dr. Katharine Lee, postdoctoral fellow at Washington University School of Medicine, she decided to launch a survey of people who are menstruating or formerly menstruated, in order to collect data. By submitting their research proposal for approval to theInstitutional Review Board, the scientists wrote that they predicted 500 participants. “We reached this figure in the first two hours”said Dr Kate Clancy in a item by Tara Haelle published on her own site. The number of respondents has now exceeded 13,000, according to the journalist.
For its part, the brand of sextoys Womanizer has conducted a short survey on the subject with its international panel of testers (the MasturbaTEAM), made up of 552 people. The participants were people who were menstruating and had already received their vaccine (first or second injection). Result: One in five people confirmed that the vaccination had an effect on their menstrual cycle. In 31% of them, their periods were heavier than usual, and 29% said their periods were more painful than usual. For about 22%, the onset of menstruation was delayed by a few days. In the open field for comments, some also reported blood loss outside of their period, or longer periods.
If the link between vaccines and menstruation has not yet been proven, Kathryn Clancy regrets the reactions of some doctors: “” No link “,” no mechanism “or even” just stress “, they say. Doctors don’t want to worry people or add to vaccine hesitation, however, in the long run, it will have the opposite effect. Telling patients that their experiences are not real is paternalistic ”, she writes on Twitter. For American researchers, the idea is not to panic people who are menstruating but to inform them about this possible side effect.
Plausible links
There are logical reasons why the vaccine could disrupt the menstrual cycle. For the Canadian-American gynecologist Jennifer Gunter, several hypotheses are possible: “The three ways the COVID-19 vaccine could impact menstruation are: either impact chemical messages from the brain to the ovaries, or impact chemical messages from the ovaries to the uterus, or impact which directly affects the lining of the uterus. These effects may be from the vaccine itself, from the response of the immune system to the vaccine, or may be related to fever or malaise caused by the vaccine or to stress related to the vaccination ”, she details on his site.
On the BBC website, Dr Victoria Male, reproductive immunologist at Imperial College London, also explains: “The lining of the womb is part of the immune system – in fact, there are immune cells in almost every part of the body. […] After vaccination, many chemical signals that can affect immune cells circulate in the body. This could cause the lining of the uterus to shed and lead to bleeding or menstruation earlier. “.
Temporary effects to be put into perspective
No question of scaring menstruating people. For many of the specialists interviewed, these menstrual changes are temporary, like fever or pain in the arm, and should not be of concern. However, Dr Male stresses the need to conduct studies on the effect of the vaccine on menstruation, so people know what to expect. Jennifer Gunter says that while the cycle disruption is known, the vaccine has no effect on procreation and the cycle disruption is only occasional. “There is no data to support that the COVID-19 vaccine has an impact on fertility or miscarriages”, she specifies on her site, in the face of the disinformation on vaccines circulating on the internet. ” Given the potential adverse effects, both short and long term, of Covid-19, the best way to protect your overall health and your menstrual cycle is to get vaccinated ”, she adds.
Pfizer, AstraZeneca … What are the side effects of vaccines?
Marion Dos Santos Clara
Lifestyle journalist, Marion writes on topics related to psychology, love and sexuality, from a societal perspective. From sexualities to new love codes, she deciphers the …