It’s very common for menstrual cycles to vary slightly from month to month, but if you’ve noticed changes right around the time you had COVID-19 or the vaccine or booster shots that helped save you, it’s not all in your head. You are part of a scientifically identified crowd.
On September 27, 2022, a giant study published in BMJ Medicine showed findings from previous studies linking COVID-19 vaccination to an average transient increase in menstrual cycle length of less than one day. cycle, the number of days in a cycle that returned to the pre-vaccination duration in the post-vaccination cycle.
There was a greater accumulation in cycle length, about 4 days, for other people who received two doses of a vaccine in the same cycle. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, included another 20,000 people from the United States and other portions of the world who won one of nine other vaccines.
Earlier this year, a similar study involving about 40,000 more people was published in the July 15 issue of the journal Science Advances. Researchers found that about 42% of those who responded to the menstruation survey reported heavier menstruation after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Not everyone was affected: About the same number of other people, about 44%, reported that they had no change in their menstruation after the vaccine, and about 14% saw a lighter fix.
Among respondents who are not menstruating, 71% of people taking long-acting reversible contraceptives and 66% of postmenopausal people reported breakthrough bleeding.
An online survey conducted by researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis, introduced in April 2022, the first to particularly assess breakthrough bleeding caused by the COVID-19 vaccine in others taking testosterone or other hormones that suppress menstruation.
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The survey included others with a diversity of gender identities, such as transgender, non-binary, or gender fluid.
Researchers found that of 552 respondents who reported using testosterone or other gender-affirming hormones and sometimes not menstruating, one-third reported breakthrough bleeding after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, 9% reported chest or breast pain, and 46% reported having other symptoms they would commonly associate with their periods. such as cramps and bloating. The study did not report the percentage of respondents who had breakthrough bleeding before vaccination, and it’s important to note that menstruation isn’t reliably suppressed with those therapies. The team is recently conducting follow-up research to see if those symptoms are transient or long-lasting.
Study co-author Katharine Lee, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the University of Washington in St. Louis suspects that the culprit in these adjustments is the immune and inflammatory reaction caused by the vaccine. “There is a massive mobilization of their immune system. And I think it may just be a little bit of mobile interference that disrupts that process.
What if you noticed menstrual adjustments after contracting the virus or even if you didn’t?It is also possible. Sometimes tension alone can interrupt your periods, and if you’re very regular regularly, even small differences are noticeable. And in case you want to be convinced, there is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic and other painful advances in recent history are considered a primary form of tension.
Aside from the disease caused by the disease itself, the pandemic has brought the kind of intense, alien situations to the public that can really disrupt lives, whether it’s wasting a darling, managing remote jobs for you or educating children, or getting divorced.
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So it’s not unexpected that other menstruating people have experienced interruptions, from missed periods to longer cycles and adjustments in bleeding patterns. This can happen if someone is inflamed with the novel coronavirus or is simply dealing with the prolonged strain of the pandemic. , according to a June 2020 report in MedPage Today.
“What we can say about COVID-19 and its effects on the menstrual cycle is comparable to what we can say about other viral infections and prolonged periods of tension: menstrual disruptions are most likely to occur,” says Taraneh Shirazian, MD, director of female global fitness and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Health in New York City. It is the central stress reaction system of the frame.
In times of stress, the HPA axis stimulates the release of cortisol, the stress hormone to help the body prepare to fight or flee a threat. With constant stress, “elevated cortisol levels can affect a woman’s menstrual cycles,” says Dr. Brown. Shirazian. In addition, with prolonged periods of stress, the stress reaction formula can be depleted and the HPA axis can be suppressed, cutting off pituitary production of luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH and LH), which then decrease ovarian estrogen production. and progesterone.
With the total removal of the HPA axis, a woman could experience amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation. With partial suppression, a woman could have periods of pimples or periods of bleeding every few weeks. “There’s no clear trend we can expect: women react to HPA axis suppression,” Shirazian says.
“What needs to be emphasized is that any disease can cause menstrual irregularities,” says Lauren Streicher, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago. “When you look at the mix of a serious infection [like COVID-19] and the strain of the pandemic, you have to be expecting that. It is not known and has not been studied how much of this is due to this express infection compared to any chronic tension or infection.
It’s vital that “biologically, women menstruate for a reason and an explanation of why alone: getting pregnant,” Dr. Streicher adds. The disruption of the menstrual cycle that can be induced by COVID-19 infection can be a biological and evolutionary protection. mechanism, both for the woman and her future child.
When it comes to pandemic tension, it is reduced on two fronts. Aside from the fact that tension itself increases cortisol levels, which can cause menstruation, the disruptions that have occurred in people’s lifestyles and routines during the pandemic can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle. Women have become more sedentary or gained weight during the pandemic, Shirazian notes, those adjustments can affect their periods, which in all likelihood leads to lack of menstruation, longer periods between periods or longer bleeding.
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In fact, “any stressful situation can adjust hormone levels and prevent a user from having their era regularly,” says Streicher. “Most of the time, it’s because ovulation doesn’t happen. “
Data from a study published in MedRxiv, which included about 1200 women with records of their menstrual cycles and vaccination dates, showed that other people with a pre-existing diagnosis of endometriosis or PCOS were more likely to experience interruptions in their cycle than other people without those diagnoses.
“This may also recommend that, in other people who are already vulnerable to cycle disruptions, vaccines would possibly have an effect,” says Victoria Male, PhD, one of the study’s authors and a senior lecturer in the Department of Metabolism. , Digestion and Reproduction at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital campus of Imperial College London.
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Dr. Male’s study found no effect on fertility. “Even if there is an effect of cycles . . . It doesn’t seem to do anything for fertility. In fact, in our review, 36 of the participants became pregnant in the same cycle they were pregnant. “vaccinated or the next cycle,” he said.
Whether you’ve had health issues with COVID-19 or gained a vaccine, if you see a replacement in your pandemic era, the first step is to find out if you might be pregnant. If he checks that you’re not expecting and “miss an era for a month or two, but you feel good, there’s nothing to make you panic,” Streicher says.
Additional reporting via Monroe Hammond and Stacey Colino.
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