- Doctors are speaking out to quash rumors that the COVID-19 vaccine affects fertility.
- The myth is “wholesale nonsense,” according to Prof Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer.
- Medics have come together on social media to reinforce the message.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
Doctors are speaking out to reassure the public that receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines will not affect fertility.
After dangerous rumors started swirling on social media that getting vaccinated against the coronavirus could hamper male and female fertility, medics and health experts have confirmed that this is a myth.
Dr Edward Morris, President at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement: “We want to reassure women that there is no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines will affect fertility. Claims of any effect of COVID-19 vaccination on fertility are speculative and not supported by any data.”
He continued: “There is no biologically plausible mechanism by which current vaccines would cause any impact on women’s fertility.”
As Business Insider’s Anna Medaris Miller previously reported, it’s thought the rumors began following a now blocked Facebook post which incorrectly suggested that the vaccine teaches the body to attack a protein involved in placental development.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, told ITV News that the rumor is “wholesale nonsense.”
“It’s such an emotive subject and it frightens so many people but it’s totally and utterly groundless,” he said.
Other medical professionals have been posting on social media to reinforce the message.
“None of the coronavirus vaccines affect your fertility. None of them,” said British general practitioner Dr Amir Khan.
“I’m having my Covid vaccine today. I’m v excited. And humbled. And no, I’m not concerned about my fertility,” wrote television doctor Dr Christian Jessen.
So keen are health professionals to quash the rumors spreading about the COVID-19 vaccine and fertility that the British Fertility Society and Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists published a document addressing many people’s concerns.
The document states that people of reproductive age, including those trying to conceive or with future hopes to do so, should receive the vaccine when invited.
“There is absolutely no evidence, and no theoretical reason, that any of the vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men,” it said.
Prof Nicola Stonehouse, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told the BBC that while the vaccines do not impact fertility, the same cannot be said for catching the coronavirus.
“You’re much more likely to have fertility issues post-COVID than after the vaccine,” she said.
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