can vaccine cause infertility

 

Can vaccines cause infertility?

It's a question people have asked themselves since the development of the world's first inoculation against smallpox almost 250 years ago and with covid19 it's happening all over again.

Women worried about like they are going infertile and so she's not getting the jab. It's not only women who are worried men are anxious too. They fear their sperm count could be affected by the jab.

Why are such rumours so persistent?

Welcome to your Covid 19 special. I'm Pooja and today we will talk in detail whether all these things are myth or have some hint of hidden truth in them.

“Vaccines causes infertility” are being widely shared with a claim that some specifically link mrna vaccines like the bio intact Pfizer and modernizables to cause reproductive issues in women. But what does the science?

Infertility in Women

To understand why Covid 19 vaccines don't cause infertility we need to understand a bit of biology. These rumours all swirl around two proteins.

The first is Synctin-1 that's produced by women's bodies when they're pregnant. It helps to build the placenta which helps support the growing baby.

Second is the Spike protein on the coronavirus particle, we're probably a bit more familiar with that one.

mrna vaccines train the body to target this protein and the way they do that is with the antibodies. Antibodies are produced in response to a covid19 vaccination. The antibodies then recognize part of the covid19 virus particle as the body encounters it and stops it invading cells.

The rumour is that these antibodies somehow get confused and end up targeting Synctin-1 instead therefore harming the placenta in the unborn baby. But if this were the case you've got to remember antibodies are produced by natural infections with covid19 as well. So if it was the case that antibodies attack the placenta then you'd expect to see a much higher rate of pregnancy complications in corona positive pregnant women.

Data researchers in the U.S. found no evidence of increased placental abnormalities, hospitalizations or adverse pregnancy outcomes in 252 Covid positive pregnant women compared to over 3000 women who didn't have covid.

The rumours come from the idea that Synctin-1 and the spike protein look basically the same to the antibody. There are some similarities but an analysis by researchers in Poland and the U.S. found those similarities are really way too small to risk confusing the immune system.

There is no plausible biological mechanism by which mrna vaccines can interfere with a woman's reproductive system. That's a fact mirrored by the evidence mrna vaccines do not cause infertility. 

Infertility in Men

We busted the myth of covid19 vaccines causing infertility in women but what is the picture like for men?

To find out more lets go through what Ranjith Ramasamy, the director of Reproductive Urology at the University of Miami said to an interview given to DW News lately.

                                                                    Pics credit- Newswise.com

Covid virus itself has been studied, evaluate effects on male fertility so the virus itself can adversely impact the sperm parameters and male fertility. There were concerns when the vaccines came out that the vaccines could also have the same effect on male fertility and so we investigated on whether Covid vaccines can affect the sperm parameters and as part of the emergency use authorization the companies didn't really do reproductive toxicity evaluation as is done for most drugs and so there was another concern that this safety parameter was not presented to the FDA.

Question - But you have now published a report saying that covid19 is linked to male infertility and sexual dysfunction what do we know now?

We do know now that the covet virus can actually be present within the testis and within the penis long after the initial infection. How it's able to evade the immune system?

What it's doing inside these organs after such a long time once the infection is cleared?

We still don't know, further research needs to be done but it appears that it causes some sort of inflammatory effects adversely impacting both sperm production as well as the blood supply to the penis leading to erectile dysfunction.

Question- What do we know so far about how exactly the Covid infection attacks male sexual health?

We do know that the blood supply to the penis is similar to the blood supply to most of the other organs in the body like the heart, the kidney, the lungs and just like how the Covid virus affects all the other organs in the body and causing dysfunction it's the same exact thing with the penis. It affects erectile dysfunction by affecting the blood supply to the penis.

Question- Now one thing all these studies have in common on these sample tests is that they didn't have a big group of participants, how certain are you of the findings?

Yes I agree that most of the studies have been pilot studies with small sample sizes including our own however we're now evaluating this on a population level and we see similar findings I don't think the effect is traumatic but I we suspect there's about a 20 to 30 percent chance of men developing erectile dysfunction after the Covid infection and I think we also don't know if the severity of the Covid infection actually affects erectile dysfunction and whether this is permanent whether these symptoms will start improving with time or do men need to be worried about some sort of a long lasting effect of erectile dysfunction after Covid infection I think all of these answers still remain to be studied.

Question- What response do you think there should be to all this information spreading about infertility and Covid?

I think the actual virus itself seems to have a negative impact on male reproductive health, on sperm production, on testosterone production as well as on erectile function. I think the information should be loud and clear that men and couples because infertility is a couple's problem, should try and avoid getting Covid virus at all costs.

Question- How would you rate the existing level of awareness we did point out that there is a lot of misinformation out there but what can we do about that really?

I'm happy you're doing a segment on this I think we are trying to improve awareness by publishing more studies, by providing more valid data to the scientific literature so  the information does spread about the adverse impacts of this virus. Most people think this is just a common cold just like the flu that it comes and goes away but this virus seems to have a lot more negative impacts and long lasting effects not just on reproductive health but certainly on cognition lung function, cardiac function, renal function for much longer time than just a simple flu or a common cold.

 Ranjit Ramasamy the is the director of Reproductive Urology at the university of Miami stated that Covid Virus affects the fertility in males and there is no surprise that vaccine can do the same. Still it is quite early to say that with confidence and medical fraternity needs to gather more data to report something concrete . 

Now shifting gears.

Can the virus be transmitted by an insect like when a mosquito bites you?

The answer to this question we're quite certain is no but what makes the question really interesting is why the answer is no and how scientists came to that conclusion because the answer to the question might just as easily have been yes right I mean after all there's a long list of nasty diseases that are mosquito-borne.

First and foremost among them malaria which is caused by single-celled parasites from the plasmodium group but mosquitoes can also transmit a number of dangerous viruses among them those that cause yellow fever or zika or west nile fever but other horrible pathogens like the ones that cause hiv or ebola.

So why not Covid?

Well it comes down to whether or not the insect can itself be infected when it bites someone who's infected with a disease-causing pathogen the blood that a mosquito swallows of course enters its digestive tract which naturally has multiple defences to prevent the mosquito from being infected by its dinner. To be passed on by the insect the pathogen has to overcome those defences then it has to to replicate inside of the mosquito and then it has to reach its salivary glands in sufficient numbers to infect a new host and not every virus can manage that it requires evolving a highly specific set of abilities. A flurry of studies early in the pandemic showed that like other closely related coronaviruses, Sarc 2 apparently can't replicate in insects which led healthcare authorities to heave a huge sigh of relief because they transmit so many deadly diseases. Mosquitoes kill more humans every year than any other animal out there but at least they aren't making the Covid 19 pandemic any worse.