There are concerns that the Covid-19 vaccination could disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle. But a new study in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology shows some reassurance about how biologic preparations tend to affect menstruation.
The researchers, as quoted by the Medical Daily, Tuesday, reported finding small and temporary changes in the menstrual cycle of women exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
They conducted the study with the help of a birth control app called Natural Cycles and monitored nearly 4,000 American women aged 18-45 during the study. The team led by Dr. Alison Edelman of Oregon Health & Science University specifically tracked six women’s menstrual cycles and analyzed how vaccinations affected their periods, the Los Angeles Times said. According to the researchers, the subsequent period after receiving the Covid-19 injection started an average of a day later than usual. They also observed no change in the number of days women menstruated.
“Based on prospective population-level data, COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a change of less than 1 day in the menstrual cycle but no change in menstrual length,” the team wrote in their brief.
Edelman told the Associated Press that their study involved women with the most normal-than-normal cycles, an average of about 24-38 days, and they compared the data with women who were not vaccinated.
The researchers acknowledged some women reported irregular periods or other changes to their cycles after getting the injections. Of the 358 women who received the injections in the same menstrual cycle noted an average delay of about two days. About 10 percent of them had a delay of 10 days or more but their periods returned to the normal range by the next cycle.
This study presents important new evidence that underscores any impact of the Covid-19 vaccine on minimal and transient menstruation, said Dr. Christopher Zahn, of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Further research is needed to validate these findings. Edelman is determined to conduct another study that focuses on the possible changes in the severity of menstrual bleeding in response to the vaccine, or if women with irregular periods will have different results.
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