The COVID-19 vaccine does not cause sterility! Misinformation spread on social media and false reports circulated have raised questions about whether the COVID-19 vaccine causes female sterility. As a result, there has been a concerning increase in vaccine hesitancy in reproductive-age women. Rest assured, these are unfounded claims. New research has proved that the vaccine does not cause female sterility.
Vaccine hesitancy among this group was largely caused by a false report, shared on social media, that said the spike protein on the coronavirus was the same as another spike protein syncytin-1, which is involved in the development and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy. The report claimed that receiving the COVID-19 vaccine would cause the body and immune system to attack the other spike protein (syncytin-1) and harm fertility. These two spike proteins are different. Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine does not affect the fertility of women hoping to conceive, including through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Further, when Pfizer was testing vaccines, 23 women volunteer participants became pregnant and did not experience issues with fertility because of the vaccine. The only one who tragically suffered a pregnancy loss did not receive the vaccine, instead receiving the placebo.
Report SARS-CoV-2 spike protein seropositivity from vaccination or infection does not cause sterility published in the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Journal Fertility & Sterility Reports debunks this myth of sterility at the hands of the vaccine.
Randy Morris, M.D. used IVF frozen embryo transfer (FET) to understand the impact of COVID-19 seropositivity (presence of a serological marker for SARS-CoV-2 in the blood) on embryo implantation. He did this by comparing the implantation rates for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine seropositive (received vaccine), infection seropositive (previously infected with COVID-19), and seronegative women. The study found no difference in maternal serum hCG levels after an embryo transfer or sustained implantation rates across the three groups. Serum hCG levels were measured because human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is produced by placental syncytiotrophoblasts following embryo implantation and can be used in the early detection of pregnancy.
The research shows that seropositivity to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, whether from vaccination or previous infection with COVID-19, did not hinder embryo implantation or the early stages of pregnancy. Neither infection with COVID-19 nor antibodies produced from the vaccine will cause female sterility. Infection with the disease, however, may have an impact on pregnancy and the mother’s health.
“We hope that all reproductive-aged women will be more confident getting the COVID-19 vaccine, given Dr. Morris’s findings that the vaccine does not cause female sterility,” said Hugh Taylor, M.D., president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. “This, and other studies of this nature, further reinforce the ASRM COVID Task Force guidance that, no matter where you are in the family-building process, the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and saves lives.”
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