The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants to five universities to study whether or not there is a link between having abnormal periods and the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the United States, there have been thousands of reports of women who have been vaccinated against the virus and then have had periods before that were usual, that felt heavier, or that seemed irregular.
And a June Times report in June found that 4,000 women in the UK had temporary changes in their menstrual cycles after being vaccinated.
Now, the federal health agency has distributed one-year supplementary grants totaling $ 1.67 million to Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University and the University of Oregon Health and Science.
The five studies will likely recruit between 400,000 and 500,000 participants, including adolescents, transgender women and non-binary people, said Dr. Washington Bianchi, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The NIH has awarded five universities one-year supplementary grants totaling $ 1.67 million to study links between irregular periods and COVID-19 vaccines. In the picture:
“These rigorous scientific studies will improve our understanding of the potential effects of COVID-19 vaccines on menstruation, providing people with menstruation with more information about what to expect after vaccination and potentially reducing vaccine vaccination.” , Bianchi said in a statement.
According to a DailyMail.com analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine adverse event reporting system, there have been 2,939 reports of women reporting irregular bleeding after the vaccine.
“I was supposed to have my menstrual cycle, but when it came, I started to bleed a lot,” one person told the CDC, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“That’s not a rule for me; my periods are usually light with spots at the beginning of my cycle. It was so heavy when it started on Friday that I bled to my pants.”
But CDC officials say none of the reports justify concern.
“Right now, CDC sees no safety issues that warrant additional surveillance of irregular menstrual symptoms reported in the vaccine adverse event reporting system,” Martha Sharan, who is in charge of the matter, said in an email to Tribune of the CDC vaccine. .
He added that the reports constitute “a very small number” of the more than 300 doses administered in the US
According to the NIH, there are several factors that can use Covid immunization to cause temporary changes in the menstrual cycle.
This includes pandemic-related stress, lifestyle changes, and even previous COVID-19 infection.
The NIH also suggests that the immune system’s response to COVID-19 may briefly affect communication between immune cells and the uterus.
Gynecologists have previously reported to DailyMail.com that cycle changes can occur after vaccination, but that they are rare, usually resolved on their own without medication, and do not affect fertility.
Dr. Khady Diouf, director of Obstetrics and Outpatient Gynecology at Brigham & Women Hospital in Massachusetts, said in an interview in June that she believes the rare side effect is probably caused by stress.
“Periods can be irregular due to stress or hormonal fluctuations that have to do with stress,” he said.
Nearly 3,000 women have reported heavier-than-normal or abnormal menstrual cycles to the CDC’s vaccine notification system of more than 300 million shots administered (above)
‘I consider the COVID-19 vaccine to be a bit of a physiological stress. Try telling your body to do something it didn’t do in a while, to give an immune response.
In turn, this puts stress on the body, which can cause irregular periods, Diouf explained.
Dr. Mark Werner, an OBGYN at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, said stress can also be caused by concern about the vaccine.
You may walk there, get nervous, and get the second one [shot]“What causes a person to release stress hormones,” he told DailyMail.com in June.
“It looks like it could be from the vaccine or the stress [women] experience “.
The two doctors said they wanted to emphasize changes in the menstrual cycle after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine that should not be combined with an impact on fertility.
