A portion of the population is still reluctant of taking the jab, and there were several myths and rumors about the vaccines and their side effects on the human body. The impact of such vaccines on women was greatly perturbing. Many claimed that expecting and lactating mothers shouldn’t take the jab, while others said that one shouldn’t get vaccinated before their menstrual cycle. Now, some of them came up with such assertions as per which, a few of them reported short-term changes in their menstrual cycle following vaccination.
Several women said they experienced a heavier period, heightened cramps, or an early, delayed, or even absent period after their COVID-19 jab. But drawing a connection between menstrual patterns and vaccination is far from straightforward.
The UK’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has so far received more than 13,000 reports from people who have experienced period changes after having a Covid-19 jab.
In the US, associate professor of anthropology Dr. Kate Clancy posted a Twitter thread detailing the menstrual changes she had experienced after the Moderna jab back in February. Hundreds of people responded saying they too had observed changes – from heavier bleeding to delayed periods – after getting vaccinated.
Despite anecdotal reports, there is no scientific evidence that links menstrual irregularities to the coronavirus vaccines, and there are many factors that can affect menstruation, including stress.
Dr. Katie Lee, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US, also noticed changes to her menstrual cycle after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine in January. She experienced cramping and spotting, despite having a hormonal intrauterine device that usually prevents her from getting periods.
Dr. Lee suspects the vaccines are not affecting people’s hormones, but rather acting on the inflammatory or hematological systems in the body.
“We attribute a lot of biological processes to strictly hormones; hormones are really important and cool, but there are all these other immune and inflammatory processes that are also involved,” Lee says. “The endometrial lining is constantly being broken down and built up and broken down and built up, and that’s just a tonne of cellular regeneration.
“A lot of these mechanisms rely on inflammatory and anti-inflammatory processes to regulate this tissue building.”
Lee says she expects the vaccines will only impact a couple of cycles in those affected, as doses in the US are administered between 21 and 28 days – effectively across two menstrual cycles.
At this stage, experts believe the vaccine’s potential impact on periods will be short-lived, but the currently limited understanding of their link has also led to public concern over the jabs’ impact on fertility.
“We, the greater scientific medical infrastructure, are continuing to gather more and more information that shows that the vaccine does not have an effect on fertility, it does not have an effect on miscarriage rates, or the rate of healthy birth outcomes, whether somebody was vaccinated before they got pregnant or vaccinated during pregnancy,” Lee explains.
“So, it’s very, very safe for getting pregnant, being pregnant, and having a baby – far more safe, in fact, than accidentally getting Covid because you were exposed and not vaccinated; that we do see is very, very risky for the gestational process, for both the parent and the child.”
However, a plausible reason could be that the womb lining is part of the immune system and as a matter of fact, there are immune cells in almost every part of the body.
Immune cells play a role in building up, maintaining, and breaking down the lining of the uterus – which thickens to prepare for pregnancy, and then sheds in the form of a period if the egg is not fertilized.
After vaccination, lots of chemical signals which have the potential to affect immune cells are circulating through the body. This could cause the womb lining to shed, and lead to spotting or earlier periods. There might be side effects, but the experts claim them to be short-lived and temporary.
