Should I worry?
The COVID-19 vaccines offer some light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel.
However, being a new vaccine, there are questions about its safety on pregnant women, those who are breastfeeding and even on people planning their fertility journey.
Dr Geetha Venkat, Senior Consultant and Director HSFC, expressed her opinion about the new Covid-19 and how it might affect people who are trying to conceive.
Covid-19 and Pregnancy
“There is controversy about the vaccine,” says Dr Venkat. “At the beginning we were advised to tell couples to not try for a baby for 3 months. Now, because the virus is multiplying so fast, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and British Fertility Society say it’s important for people to have the vaccine so they don’t catch the infection. However, it is lack of data regarding the safety during the pregnancy. I would say, wait for the first trimester to finish, when the organs are forming, and you can have the vaccine in the second trimester when it’s safer to do so”.
Risks of the Covid-19 vaccine on fertility
Dr Venkat says that “this is a new vaccine, so it lacks data. However, the vaccine is not a live vaccine, so this should not affect in any way the eggs, the ovaries or the uterus. We would advise, after having the vaccine, to wait for a month or 2 before starting treatment, so the system has developed the antibodies and there is no risk for in infections, so there is a safe time. As far as we know it doesn’t affect your future fertility but we don’t know, because, being such a new virus, there is no data on this. The infection is so prevalent now that it’s important to have the vaccine.”
If you would like to read more on this subject, please head over to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ website.
