A study with 1,600 women confirms that the Covid vaccine alters the rule

Marina, 33, got the first dose of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine on July 9. That same day it was her turn to lower her period, but it did not come. Nor in the following days, until five days later he had a small spot. “I was quite scared because I thought it could be a pregnancy, I went to the pharmacy for a test and it came back negative,” she explains by phone.

Then he thought of the vaccine he had received a week before and it occurred to him to comment on it in a group of whatsapp of girls with whom he practices yoga. She found that other girls had also noticed changes in menstruation, and she found many more online.

Also in whatsapp, but in a group of midwives in Granada, Laura Baena realized that the irregular menstruation she had suffered after being vaccinated against Covid was not an isolated case. This doctor in Nursing from the University of Granada listened to her colleagues: “They spoke to me both about their own experiences and about the women they cared for. I saw that it was quite common but nevertheless there was no scientific literature on it. In addition, I was worried because many who had dared to tell their doctors had been almost taken for crazy, “he explains to The Independent.

Thus began a study – called Project Eva – that seeks to confirm the data that hundreds of women have communicated. The research has been divided into two parts, on the one hand a retrospective survey that already collects data from 1,600 vaccinated women of childbearing age and from which it appears that “around six out of 10 have suffered alterations in their menstruation, with much variability ”, explains Baena. “The most frequent are an increase in bleeding, the absence of periods for one or two months and small bleeds between periods, coinciding with the ovulation period.”

The other leg of the study, for which they are collaborating with the Granada Clinical Hospital, will do an annual follow-up of about 150 women (there are already 130 in the project). “These are unvaccinated women who we monitor their period, the impact after the vaccine, premenstrual symptoms, blood and coagulation tests, as well as their sociodemographic characteristics and their lifestyle habits,” indicates the researcher. With all these data they hope to analyze the phenomenon and its causes, which are still unknown.

Although they consider different possibilities, Baena affirms that his team is inclined to think “of a vascular origin and related to coagulation rather than a hormonal alteration, since two or three cycles are usually regulated”.

Baena also wants to clarify that the problems they are detecting “are mild and transitory, we have not seen any income and therefore the vaccine is highly recommended and much better than the effects of Covid.”

At the moment, 60% of the women who responded to the retrospective survey had been vaccinated with Pfizer “which does not mean that this vaccine gives more reactions of this type but that most of the women who have participated were sanitary and had received that vaccine”.

Other similar data is provided by the Womanizer company, which a few weeks ago launched a survey on this issue to 552 vaccinated women and said one in five said that the vaccine affected their menstrual cycle. 31% for a more intense period than usual, 29% had more pain and another 22% had their menstruation delayed a few days.

More gender perspective

One of the things that Baena claims is the lack of a gender perspective in scientific studies and specifically related to menstruation: «It is a pending issue, in many cases women are not directly included in the studies because at a physiological level there are more complexity and even due to a paternalistic vision of protecting fertility, then there are no data ”.

On whether there are data on the relationship between other vaccines and menstruation, “there has been talk of some interaction with influenza and papilloma vaccines, but the literature is really scarce.” In any case, the midwife believes that “the interaction between the Covid vaccine and the rule seems to be unprecedented, but it is also true that a vaccine has never been applied so massively to women of childbearing age.”

The midwife warns that it is still too early to talk about long-term effects or on fertility, but that so far the indications speak of “transitory effects” and therefore stress that the vaccine is “highly recommended.”

Although for the follow-up study it is necessary to reside in Granada, the midwife remembers that any woman can participate in the recording of the effects through [email protected].

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