Amy Taylor was chatting with friends over a Zoom drink when the conversation took an unexpected turn. One of the group, all about 30 years old, mostly with college education and professional jobs, mentioned that she had concerns about the Covid vaccine because she wanted to try a baby next year or two.
“I was surprised when others said they were also a little anxious. Then I started to think that maybe I should be worried too, even though I’m a pro of vaccines and I know this is the way out of the pandemic, ”Taylor said. many women in their thirties: I left too late, will I need IVF, do I have to freeze eggs? We don’t want anything else that could interfere with our chances of motherhood. ”
Concern for fertility is one of the main drivers of hesitant hesitation, despite the explicit assurances of doctors and scientists. The suggestion that Covid vaccines could affect fertility was “nonsense,” Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy medical director at ITV’s, said. Good morning to Britain last week. There was “no evidence at all that there are any issues related to family planning or fertility,” he added.
The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) have issued a joint statement on misinformation about the effect of Covid vaccines on fertility. “There is no biologically plausible mechanism by which current vaccines cause any impact on women’s fertility,” said Edward Morris, president of the RCOG.
The British Fertility Society and the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists also published guidelines stating that there was “absolutely no evidence, no theoretical reason, that any of the vaccines could affect female or male fertility.” .
People can start fertility treatment immediately after getting vaccinated and those who donate eggs or sperm for use by others can take it. Women who have had recurrent miscarriages and are now trying to conceive do not need to postpone vaccination, according to the guide.
Raj Mathur, chairman of the executive committee of the British Fertility Society, said there was very little data on the vaccination’s hesitation or the reasons for it. “But anecdotally a lot of people have expressed their concern to me and colleagues, even among healthcare workers,” he told Observer.
“It’s based on misinformation, but unfortunately it’s there. Vaccination does not prevent you from getting pregnant and is the best way to reduce your risk of getting Covid when you are pregnant.
Virginia Beckett, clinical head of reproductive medicine at the NHS Foundation of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation, said she also had anecdotal evidence of vaccine hesitation among women of childbearing age. “We have seen health workers decrease vaccination because of these concerns, and this is a warning, because most women in this age group have not even been vaccinated,” she said.
The online misinformation had been largely derived from a comment posted by a former Pfizer employee that the immune response triggered by his vaccine could attack the placenta, he said. Since then, the post has been deleted and its content is discredited. “But the idea has inevitably erupted, especially among people who already had doubts about the vaccine. It’s quite a concern. “He added:” This misinformation is very difficult to address. Social media plays an important role in the lives of many people and can easily lead you to dark and conspiratorial places. many things to reinforce it ”.
Beckett posted a video on Twitter rejecting claims about the effect of vaccines on fertility, saying it was “not biologically possible.” But, she added, “what we do know is that Covid is dangerous for pregnant women.”
At the peak of the current wave, 9% of all intensive care patients in the UK were pregnant or had recently given birth to a baby, she said. “We have seen some really sick patients in the last trimester [of pregnancy], and we have seen a threefold increase in advance shipments. We all want to do everything to protect our chances of building a family. But it is a perverse way of trying to achieve this by avoiding vaccination, especially because we know that Covid does not disappear.
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