National Institutes of Health has announced a $ 1.67 million study to investigate reports suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccine may have an unexpected impact on reproductive health.
It has been just over six months since the three COVID-19 vaccines in the United States (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson) became widely available to all adults. But even in the early days of the vaccine launch, some women noticed irregular periods after their shots, Lily first reported in April.
Shana Clauson, 45, spoke to the Washington Post women’s news site at the time, and again this week, about her experience after receiving the punch, revealing that her period came sooner. and heavier than it considers normal. She was one of many who gathered on social media to share what they saw.
“Isn’t this being discussed, or is it even being examined or investigated because it’s a‘ women’s issue ’? “” Clauson speculated to Lily last spring.
The NIH appears to have heard reports from Clauson and others as they announced on August 30 that they intended to undertake this investigation, with the aim of incorporating up to half a million participants, including adolescents and transgender and non-binary people.
Researchers from Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University and Oregon University of Health and Science have been hired to begin the study, commissioned by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the NIH and the Office of Research on Women’s Health.
The approximately one-year study will follow initially unvaccinated participants to observe changes that occur after each dose. More specifically, some groups will exclude participants in contraceptive or gender affirmative hormones, which may have their own impact on periods.
“Our goal is to provide menstrual people with information, mainly about what to expect, because I think that was the most important problem: no one expected it to affect the menstrual system, because the information was not collected in the first studies on vaccines,” she said. NICHD director Diana Bianchi said in a statement to Lily, according to reports, accrediting her first coverage to help publicize the NIH.
“We were concerned that this would contribute to the vaccination of vaccines in women of reproductive age.”
The director of NICHD, Diana Bianchi
The NIH suggests that changes in the menstrual cycle could arise due to various life circumstances during a pandemic: the stress of lifestyle changes or possibly with the disease. In addition, the immune and reproductive systems are intrinsically related, and the idea that the immune-boosting vaccine may alter the typical menstrual cycle is plausible, as previous studies on vaccine uptake show.
It is also worth noting that the vaccine does not cause infertility and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine even for pregnant women.
Because changes to the menstrual cycle “are not really a matter of death or life,” Bianchi explained, the Food and Drug Administration (rapid follow-up of her work) only prioritized the most critical risks associated with the COVID- vaccine. 19.
The NIH also brought the initiative together at breakneck speed. Normally, funding for this study would take years to be approved.
“We were concerned that this would contribute to vaccination of vaccines in women of reproductive age,” Bianchi said.