TAMPA, Fla. — “It is definitely a myth. We have a lot of high-quality evidence that this is not the case,” said Dr. Alyssa Brown, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tampa General Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of South Florida.
Experts say the rumor that the COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility started circulating early on and is still preventing some women from getting vaccinated
They say it’s not true.
“Now we have hundreds of thousands of women that we’ve been able to look at post-vaccination and the fertility rates are not affected,” said Brown.
“It’s been like pretty much six months since anybody who is pregnant or of the fertility age could’ve taken a vaccine. From what I’ve spoken to multiple OBGYNs, high-risk doctors… What I’m hearing from everybody is that there is not a problem,” said Dr. David Berger, Board Certified Pediatrician at Wholistic Pediatrics and Family Care.
Researchers say the way the vaccine works has nothing to do with the ability to get pregnant.
“It’s basically teaching your body to respond to a protein to get your body’s immune system boosted so that if confronted, with the actual virus, that you’re better equipped to manage it,” said Brown.
“The way that it’s developed and the way that it’s designed, there really isn’t a mechanism by how it could really impact fertility, both male and female,” she added.
Data shows thousands of women have become pregnant around the time they were vaccinated and doctors say they also haven’t seen an increase in miscarriages.
“Like 20% of pregnancies if not more can have a miscarriage anyway. So obviously if that happens at a very high baseline in the first place, and then there are people who get a vaccine and have a miscarriage afterwards unless we are seeing a significantly higher amount of miscarriages happening in that particular subset of people who have been vaccinated, then you can’t really say that it’s the vaccine that’s causing women to have miscarriages,” said Berger.
The CDC just released a new urgent health advisory to increase COVID-19 vaccinations among people who are pregnant, recently pregnant, trying to become pregnant or might become pregnant in the future to prevent serious illness, deaths, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
The CDC says the benefits the vaccine for both the women and the fetus or infant
“In terms of the ability to be getting pregnant, there doesn’t seem to be an issue there,” said Berger.