About Fertility
COVID Vaccines Do Not Influence IVF Outcome
The pandemic strained health care and fertility services. It impacted the thoughts and actions of many seeking fertility treatment. Some continued the brave path forward during lockdown for fear of no clear end to pandemic restrictions, while others hit the pause button. There was no wrong answer. With time we have found that COVID vaccines do not influence IVF outcome.
COVID Vaccines and Fertility
December of 2020 saw the issue of emergency allowance (EUA) of the first mRNA vaccine that encoded the spike protein for SARS-CoV-2. Vaccination campaigns and time brought data to provide evidence-based studies. With these campaigns came the concerns regarding immune-mediated detrimental effects of vaccination on female fertility. In part, it may have led to an apprehension of women desiring pregnancy or already pregnancy and their willingness to vaccinate.
COVID Vaccines Do Not Influence IVF Outcome
Two years from the start of the pandemic, large data sets have emerged and here is what we know. In a study of women who underwent IVF one week to 3 months from vaccination, there was no difference in the quality of the IVF cycle or the outcomes. The investigators queried, doses of medications used, number of eggs retrieved, and all the characteristics of the eggs and embryos within the labs. These assessments are standard measures that are used in research setting. But what counts is the outcome, and that is pregnancy and taking home a baby. Women who received the vaccine were just as likely to become pregnant as those without vaccination.
These findings have been echoed in other findings. Vaccination does not influence IVF outcome for pregnancy. The concern then becomes what the risk is to the pregnancy in the presence of or absence of COVID vaccination. This data is clear as well, with the unvaccinated (not previously uninfected). The data collected overtime is both clear and unfortunate. Stillbirth rates in unvaccinated women significantly trump the rates in previously vaccinated women.
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