Coronavirus Vaccines Do Not Affect Fertility AT ALL

Covid Vaccines Do Not Affect Fertility AT ALL
Covid Vaccines Do Not Affect Fertility AT ALL

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This week, right as President Biden announced that every adult is now eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, fertility fear-mongering and anti-science anti-vax culture collided to create pure chaotic evil. According to the new conspiracy theory circulating on social media, people who get the vaccine can somehow "shed" something that can affect the menstrual cycle or fertility of someone else... simply by standing near them.

Luckily, ob-gyn Dr. Jen Gunter busted the myth in her newsletter, The Vajenda, in no uncertain terms. "No, the Covid-19 vaccine is not capable of exerting reproductive control via proxy. Nothing is. This is because it is a vaccine, not a spell," she writes.

RELATED: The Good News About Your Fertility

So let's break this down, shall we? First thing's first: The vaccine simply does not affect anyone by proxy — we don't shed mRNA or spike proteins and pass them on, Dr. Gunter points out.

And yes, the vaccine can impact your menstrual cycle. Once. Just like a fever, it's a normal, temporary side effect and actually a sign the immune system is being activated, and the shot is doing what it's supposed to. But if it does affect your period, "you aren't going to drag someone else along for the ride," Dr. Gunter points out. The menstrual cycle simply isn't contagious — and while a popular myth, period syncing is simply that: a myth.

RELATED: Why You Might Have a More Intense Period After Getting Vaxxed

There's already so much anxiety surrounding fertility, so it makes sense that women would be nervous about a new vaccine that someone out there is claiming will affect it. But there is no evidence that getting the Covid-19 vaccine will affect your ability to get pregnant, according to the CDC.

So, you do not need to avoid getting pregnant after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, nor avoid the vaccine if you are pregnant, per the CDC and pretty much every ob-gyn and fertility specialist out there. (In fact, during the Pfizer vaccine trials, 23 women volunteers involved in the study became pregnant. The only one in the trial who suffered a pregnancy loss had not received the actual vaccine, but a placebo.) As you may already know, an estimated 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage regardless. And, despite attempts from anti-vaxxers to weaponize pregnancy loss, too: Nope, miscarriages also are not contagious.

"It's important to note that having a COVID infection in pregnancy is dangerous itself," Natasha Bhuyan, M.D., a family physician and infectious disease expert based in Phoenix, AZ previously told InStyle. Meaning, those who are or wish to be pregnant should have extra incentive TO get the shot rather than risk the illness itself. "And there is emerging research that people who are pregnant who get vaccinated pass on beneficial antibodies to the fetus."

Bottom line: These lies about the Covid-19 vaccine, which Dr. Gunter calls "a form of reproductive coercion" shouldn't scare you into not getting vaccinated... or going near someone who has. So, please, tell your Facebook friends to get their stories straight. And if you haven't had your shots yet? In the wise words of President Biden: "Go and get 'em, folks."