Immune response to Covid jab can impact menstruation

Little by little we’re learning that a Covid vaccine affects more and more parts of the body. This shouldn’t be surprising as other vaccinations, HPV, for example, do too. The latest post-covid discovery is its effect on menstruation.

Alterations to menstrual periods and unexpected bleeding aren’t in the list of Covid side effects, but doctors say women are complaining of menstrual side effects shortly after vaccination.

More than 30,000 reports on Covid vaccines were made to MHRA’S drug surveillance scheme by September 2, 2021, according to Victoria Male, lecturer in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London.

As menstrual changes have been reported after both the Pfizer Biontech and the Astrazeneca type of vaccines, it suggests that they are the unlikely culprits. However, it’s more likely to be a result of the immune response to vaccination.

Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) has also been associated with menstrual changes and we know the menstrual cycle is prey to immune arousal from various stimuli, including viruses. In one study of menstruating women, around one in four of those infected with Covid had disturbed menstrual periods, possibly due to immunological influences on the hormones controlling menstruation or on the immune cells in the lining of the uterus.

As menstrual disruption after Covid usually returns to normal by the next period, there’s no evidence that Covid vaccination adversely affects fertility. This is borne out in clinical trials where unintended pregnancies occurred at comparable rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated women, and pregnancy rates are similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients attending fertility clinics. It’s crucially important that this reassurance is made public.

Vaccine hesitancy among young women is largely driven by false claims that Covid vaccines could harm their chances of future pregnancy. So although changes to the menstrual cycle after vaccination are short-lived, we badly need rigorous research into this side effect to further promote the success of the vaccination rollout.

If there is found to be a confirmed link between vaccination and menstrual changes, people will be able to plan for potentially altered cycles. Trusted information is important for those who rely on being able to predict their cycles to achieve or avoid pregnancy.

If we’re to gather this information it’s essential that all clinical trials on vaccines include questions about menstruation as participants are unlikely to report changes to periods unless specifically asked.

Information about menstrual cycles and other bleeding should be actively sought in any future clinical trials of Covid vaccines.

Ahhh the refreshing smell of salt in the sea air, the wind in my hair… and the clank of wine bottles being carried gingerly from the car to the local bottle bank.

I’m just back from a wild and windy weekend in Lyme Regis, Dorset, with my best friend Ali. That’s wild and windy indoors judging by the pile of empties and food wrappers we had to take home with us, while the weather outside remained sunny and mild.

Mother-of-whippets decided to leave the idiots at home or we’d have spent the weekend calling out the search and rescue coastguard helicopters to have them plucked off the vertiginous cliffs. Or saving the fishermen from going to sea with the world’s most useless accidental stowaways.

In fact we often wonder which of our dogs would last the longest in the wild. I reckon Bozza could last an entire day as he’d happily eat chewing gum and ciggie butts. While I give the whippets, Jazz and Sanna, about five minutes before they ran headlong into a brick wall.

Instead it was just me and Ali and Boris – the dog being the only responsible adult on the trip – and a weekend of bracing sea walks, literary chats by the fire about books (that we fully intend reading one day), and home-cooked comfort dinners in our “borrowed” cliff-top cottage overlooking the town.

But I knew things were going to go wrong when I realised I’d packed the car with one small bag of food, and two huge boxes of booze and crisps. “Is that just for you?” cackled Ali, as I picked her up. I looked in the back, and replied: “Hmmm… you may be right. We better stop at Majestic and stock up.”

So our weekend turned from classy to “crack open the prosecco,” and hilariously chucking ourselves off the Cobb like the annoying Louisa in Austen’s Persuasion.

See? Told you we were literary…

■ Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.