I decided to discuss the issue of Covid 19 vaccination and the rumour that might cause infertility. If I had 100 dollars for every infertility patient that asked me this question and 100 dollars for every patient that I had to discuss this matter with to convince them to take the vaccine to protect themselves against COVID 19, I would be able to travel one full month with my family in Europe with this money. I think they assumed that because I am an TCM practitioner, and I practice holistic and natural medicine that I will be against the Vaccine. My approach with Natural Medicine was to understand what can be used to heal every patient in a particular way, because we have different types of energy that require different approaches. I love Traditional Chinese Medicine and how it can help my patients, but I am also going to Medicine School and I practised as a family Doctor before I immigrated to Canada, and I can’t forget how much western medicine has given to our world. I always try to unite the Medicines and not to separate them. In the case of Pandemic, the vaccines are the best way to protect yourself. I was the first one in line when I was able to apply, and I will do it for my kids as soon as they can apply. Even if this article does not talk 100% about the Acupuncture effects and healing, etc, it tells a matter that I have been dealing with daily since this Pandemic started and share with you my thoughts it’s my duty as a health professional who had both education. First think to discuss, most of my infertile ladies who succeeded to be pregnant during the pandemic with the help of acupuncture I can share that they were very scared to take the vaccine even if we know that the COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people aged 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future.
Pregnant and recently pregnant people are more likely to get severely ill with COVID-19 compared with non-pregnant people. I had numerous conversations and showed them scientific reports explaining that taking the Covid 19- Vaccine was the best chance to protect themselves and their babies. I would say 90% of these ladies in the end agreed to take their vaccines given by the obstetricians of Manitoba Clinic. So again, getting a COVID-19 vaccine can protect you from severe illness from COVID-19. Let’s talk about truthful information that you can read about Pregnancy x covid 19 Vaccine: This information was published at CDC, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION which is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services: No safety concerns were found in animal studies: Studies in animals receiving a Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy found no safety concerns in pregnant animals or their babies. No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes occurred in previous clinical trials that used the same vaccine platform as the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine: Vaccines that use the same viral vector have been given to pregnant people in all trimesters of pregnancy, including in a large-scale Ebola vaccination trial.No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, including adverse outcomes affecting the baby, were associated with vaccination in these trials. Learn more about how viral vector vaccines work.
COVID-19 vaccines do not cause infection, including in pregnant people or their babies: None of the COVID-19 vaccines contain the live virus that causes COVID-19 so a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make anyone sick with COVID-19, including pregnant people or their babies. Early data suggest receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy reduces the risk for infection: A recent study from Israel compared pregnant people who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with those who did not. Scientists found that vaccination lowered the risk of infection from the virus that causes COVID-19. Vaccination of pregnant people builds antibodies that might protect their baby: When pregnant people receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, their bodies build antibodies against COVID-19, like non-pregnant people. Antibodies made after a pregnant person received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were found in umbilical cord blood. This means COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy might help protect babies against COVID-19. More data are needed to determine how these antibodies, like those produced with other vaccines, may provide protection to the baby. And this is what they published about the cause of Infertility and link to vaccination: Professional medical organisations serving people of reproductive age, including adolescents, emphasise that there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes a loss of fertility.1–4 These organisations also recommend COVID-19 vaccination for people who may consider getting pregnant in the future. Professional societies for male reproduction recommend that men who want to have babies in the future be offered COVID-19 vaccination.5 There is no evidence that vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause male fertility problems.
Research Studies of Fertility in Healthy Males explained that no evidence shows that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause male fertility problems. A recent small study of 45 healthy men who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (i.e., Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) looked at sperm characteristics, like quantity and movement, before and after vaccination.12 Researchers found no significant changes in these sperm characteristics after vaccination. Fever from illness has been associated with short-term decrease in sperm production in healthy men.13 Although fever can be a side effect of COVID-19 vaccination, there is no current evidence that fever after COVID-vaccination affects sperm production. You can read the whole content at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/planning-for-pregnancy.html
Now I will share my experience dealing with Covid-19 infected males and females who were trying to get pregnant. I was preparing a few cases of diagnosed Female infertility before IUI or IVF egg retrieval / transfer and thankfully their partners had perfect sperm analysis, and nothing needed to be done on their side. From a group of 35 couples who I was following for these purposes and doing acupuncture to help with their outcome I found out that 15 male’s patients who were waiting to get their sperm collected contracted COVID 19. None of them were vaccinated, either because it was not available yet at that time and some of them did not want to be vaccinated against Covid 19. So, 5 of them ended up in the Hospital for a few weeks and fully recovered and the rest of them had the basic flu symptoms and they had to stay isolated for a few weeks. We resumed our acupuncture treatments 2 months after they contracted Covid 19. Coincidentally 12 of the 15 patients had their sperm analysis affected, 10 of them in fact had their sperm count decreased to zero, which was very alarming. All of them had their sperm morphology and count decreased which resulted in a pause on their IVF/ IUI plans. These males were not under treatment with me before they had Covid 19, only their wives, as they got scared that their Sperm got affected. These 12 males came for Acupuncture weekly treatment from 3- 6 months and 70% of them got their situation reversed. Unfortunately for some of them, after one year they recovered from covid 19 they still have a zero sperm count and due to time sensitive reasons they decided to use a sperm donor. So, if you are afraid to take the COVID 19 vaccine and you have been reading conspiracy theories that falsely suggest COVID-19 immunization can lead to infertility, please think again.
Getting COVID 19 can harm your fertility, not the vaccination. And just to give an example , you can read this from https://www.focusonreproduction.eu/article/News-in-Reproduction-COVID-19-Vaccine:
“ In Britain, the RCOG and British Fertility Society reported categorically that there is ‘absolutely no evidence, and no theoretical reason, that any of the vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men’…A ‘myth-busting’ BBC reality-check on the infertility claims found them ‘unfounded’…And the director of the WHO’s department of immunisation said: ‘The vaccines we give cannot cause infertility . . . and there’s no truth to the rumour.’” I was curious to find out Why Covid 19 infections can affect young healthy males? – There is a theoretical possibility of testicular damage and subsequent infertility following COVID-19 infection. The possibility of testicular damage is caused by either direct viral invasion through binding of SARS-COV2 virus to ACE2 receptors or secondary to immunological and inflammatory response. At the level of testicular cells, four main cell types; seminiferous duct cells, spermatogonia, Leydig cells and Sertoli cells, show higher rate of ACE2 mRNA expression. If the virus causes damage to these cells, the process of spermatogenesis could be affected which might pose risk to male fertility.
And if this evidence is not enough to convince you I will share a case one of my patients told me about her co-worker. Because my clinic is located inside Manitoba Clinic that is in front of HSC ( Health Sciences Centre – where they have More than 8,000 staff, physicians and volunteers caring for patients) and we are in a walking distance of Women’s Hospital, over 45% of my clientele are health care workers, what means Hospital staff, nurses, physicians, surgeons and social workers are my normal clientele on weekly basis, so they ended up sharing many sad stories of what this Pandemic affected their coworkers and how that traumatised them in the past 19 months .
One nurse shared with me that this young nurse who had her first job at HSC as she graduated in Nursing School, despite all her coworkers asking her to take the Covid 19 vaccine in early February 2021 she refused because she was in her 20′ s and did not want her fertility to be affected. She did not have a partner, but she had a wish to become a mother one day. Unfortunately, after 5 weeks into this new job she contracted Covid 19 and she did not survive. And this was not an isolated case. Especially if you’re a health care worker, a front-line worker you must be protected with the Covid 19 vaccine and even with the vaccine there is no 100% guarantee you will not get infected, but we hope you develop a mild form of the disease and hopefully you do not need a Tracheal intubation.
With the variant in place the risk is even worse, and I believe that very soon Canada / USA and many other countries will need to offer booster shots for the population at risk. Misinformation and fear resulting from conspiracy campaigns can literally kill you because your reticence of taking the vaccine after reading this Online fake news can influence your decision of missing out the opportunity to be protected. Unfortunately, in my birth country Brazil I lost 48 people who were part of my life growing up to Covid 19 complications. I lost Physicians colleagues from my Med School, nurses I had worked with, social workers, family members from my extended family and friends that I grew up with and their parents. It has been a devastating period and I feel it’s my duty to share my views and beliefs with whomever is reading this article to be informed on the truth and take the step to protect themselves and the baby you are planning to have or if you are pregnant or if you are breastfeeding. Just to conclude my thoughts I wanted to share what the New York times published: “ While we do not yet know everything about Covid-19 in human pregnancy, we do know that pregnant women who contract the disease are at higher risk for severe illness. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/opinion/covid-vaccine-rumors.html
The infection may also be associated with potentially life-threatening complications of pregnancy, such as pre-eclampsia, a condition characterized in part by dangerously high maternal blood pressure. In rare cases, the coronavirus can invade the placenta. In contrast, there is zero chance that someone can get Covid-19 disease from the vaccines, which contain no live virus. We worry that women who hesitate to get immunised are underestimating the risk of Covid-19 and overestimating the risk of the vaccines.” “For any woman who is pregnant, nursing or trying to conceive, contracting Covid-19 is almost certainly more dangerous than getting immunised. And ultimately, mass vaccination, combined with physical distance and wearing masks, provides the only way that we can end the pandemic and protect all women, men and children from the disease.” The truth is the potential long-term impact of the COVID-19 virus on the reproductive health of men and women is still unclear.
This includes the potential impact of the drug treatments, increased use of chemical disinfectants and the psychological impact of the pandemic on sperm function, embryo development, ovarian health, and sexual function. Don’t play with this virus, it can take your life away and even if it does not affect your fertility, it can cause permanent consequences which I see my patients dealing with every day. Acupuncture has been helping them to recover from these effects a bit faster and improve their quality of life but some of them are unfortunately irreversible.
Trust in science and the scientists that worked against the clock for a solution and talk with your MD about what is the best choice for you. Your primary doctor will be happy to discuss any fear you might have to receive the Covid 19 vaccine. There are no other preventive measures out there as effective as the Covid 19 Vaccine and even after being vaccinated, be wise in exposing yourself to dangerous situations, keep using your mask, washing your hands and go for booster shots when they are available to you.