COVID-19 vaccination (Source: The Hill twitter)
What exactly will be the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on a woman's body? The most immediate physical response may be a change in the menstrual cycle, and the menstrual period of each month is a barometer of the health of the body for women. Vaccination against COVID-19 affects the menstrual cycle, is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Oregon Health & Science University recently conducted a study that followed about 4,000 U.S. women (2,403 vaccinated; 1,556 unvaccinated; 55 percent vaccinated against Pfizer-BioNTec, 35 percent and 7 percent each vaccinated against Moderna and Johnson & Johnson/Jensen). They went through a total of 6 menstrual cycles. The results of the study were released wednesday: Respondents generally came about a day later than usual after their menstruation was injected. However, after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, the total number of days of menstruation did not change.
Dr. Alison Edelman of Oregon Health and Sciences University, who led the study, said: "This study has landed a lot of women's hanging hearts on the ground!" It is still necessary to vaccinate women with the new crown vaccine on the body. ”
Dr. Christine Metz, a biologist and professor of molecular medicine at the Manhasset Feinstein Institute of Medicine in New York, said that according to the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, it is normal for cycle length changes with less than 8 days to last.
Dr Metz said it's well known that many factors affect the length of the menstrual cycle, including diet, sleep and exercise, as well as illness, travel and stress. The COVID-19 vaccine affects people with different forms of side effects, including pain, nausea, pain, fever and fatigue at the injection site, and more serious ones may cause insomnia, lack of appetite, and feelings of depression. In addition, vaccination has an impact on the secretion and stabilization of estrogen, progesterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and other hormones associated with female reproduction, thereby shortening or prolonging the menstrual cycle.
A woman's menstrual cycle lasts from the first day of menstruation to the first day of the next cycle. In fact, slight changes from month to month are normal, and stress, diet, and even exercise can cause temporary changes. Edelman said the study included women with the "most normal" menstrual cycles, with an average of between 24 and 38 days.
Comparison of vaccination and unvaccinated cycles (Source: Natural Cycles website)
The researchers tracked 3 cycles before and 3 cycles after vaccination of the vaccinated women, including the months in which they were vaccinated, and compared them to unvaccinated women. Of the 358 women who were vaccinated against COVID-19 during the same menstrual cycle, their next menstrual cycle changed slightly more, averaging two days. The researchers reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology that about 10 percent of them changed for 8 days or more, but then returned to the normal range.
Dr Edelman said: "There is a theory that when the immune system accelerates at a specific time in the menstrual cycle, our circadian clock or substance that controls the menstrual cycle may snooze. Dr. Edelman plans to conduct the next step of the study to determine if there are changes in menstrual flow, or whether women with irregular menstruation will react differently.
Going back to the original question, is it a good thing or a bad thing that COVID-19 vaccination affects the menstrual cycle? The results of the US study show that it is normal and reasonable for women to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to cause menstrual changes, and that estrogen causes some fluctuating reactions to the body and does not harm the body.
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Resources:
[1] Edelman, A. et al. Association Between Menstrual Cycle Length andCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination: A U.S. Cohort. Obstetrics& Gynecology (2022).
[2] COVID-19 vaccination has little impact on the menstrual cycle https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/966238#vp_2