No Evidence Vaccines Impact Fertility
Q: Do the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility?
A: There’s no evidence that approved vaccines cause fertility loss. Although clinical trials did not study the issue, loss of fertility has not been reported among thousands of trial participants nor confirmed as an adverse event among millions who have been vaccinated.
FULL QUESTION
A group of woman in their 20’s I know are not getting the vaccine. They are nurses and teachers. They say that the vaccine can cause infertility. Is this true?
FULL ANSWER
On Feb. 5, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine released a statement assuring patients that there’s no evidence that the approved COVID-19 vaccines can impact the capacity to conceive children.
Although there’s limited research on the matter since clinical trials did not specifically study fertility, no related issues have been reported among thousands of trial participants. In fact, some of them got pregnant. Initial studies on animals for the Moderna vaccine showed no impact on female reproduction or fetal development either. And although detecting fertility issues can take time, as of Jan. 20, fertility loss has not been found to be a side effect among millions who have already received the vaccines after authorization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Loss of fertility is scientifically unlikely,” health reproductive experts concluded in their statement.
The statement was issued to address public anxiety caused by baseless viral claims stating that vaccines can lead to infertility, and even female sterilization. And it reiterates previous recommendations for pregnant patients, as well as those undergoing fertility treatment or planning to conceive.
“Since the vaccine is not a live virus, there is no reason to delay pregnancy attempts because of vaccination administration or to defer treatment until the second dose has been administered,” according to a document prepared by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in December.
As we have explained, both the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are messenger RNA vaccines, or mRNA, which do not contain a weaker or inactivated version of the virus. The mRNA provides instructions for cells to make their own spike proteins (found on the
