The number of women reporting problems with periods following their Covid vaccinations has rocketed tenfold.
The number of reports logged with medicine watchdogs – from women with side effects – has risen to almost 40,000 in less than a year.
But, despite this, the UK regulator says no link has been established between changes to periods and the vaccines.
The Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for monitoring safety of all medicines and vaccines once they’re approved for use.
They collate reports through the Yellow Card scheme online.
Periods after Covid vaccination
We first reported on disruption to periods following the Covid vaccine last June.
Women in Tayside and Fife had been speaking out about problems they’d encountered.
And at that point, around 4000 reports had been received into the Yellow Card scheme.
‘My next period was longer’
Katie Niven from Dundee told us after having her AstraZeneca jag last March she noticed changes.
She said: “I had my vaccine on day three of my cycle and then my next period definitely lasted longer – it was 16 days long.
“I found it highly suspicious. It was a combination of knowing it wasn’t normal for me and finding out, after Googling it, other women were experiencing the same sorts of issues that I made the correlation.”
What do figures say now?
Figures shot up as the vaccination programme rolled out. Up to March 16 this year, figures reveal:
- 39,494 individual Yellow Card reports have now been logged
- 50,673 problems have been reported (reports could have had more than one issue reported at a time)
What changes were reported?
A number of different irregularities were reported after all three different types of the vaccine including:
- heavier than usual periods
- delayed periods
- unexpected vaginal bleeding.
The MHRA continue to review reports of suspected period problems.
Is there a link?
The reports are also being reviewed by independent experts.
But, the MHRA says: “The rigorous evaluation completed to date does not support a link between changes to menstrual periods and related symptoms and Covid vaccines.”
Look. This isn't intended to come across as antivax in anyway. I am triple protected and would do it again.
But, it has significantly affected my menstruation. It has significantly affected a lot of women's menstruation. There has been hardly anything written about this.
— Katy Stoll (@katystoll) March 26, 2022
And they say the number of reports is low in relation to the number of people who’ve had their vaccines and how common menstrual disorders are generally.
They add changes reported are “mostly transient in nature”. And there is no evidence to suggest Covid vaccines affect fertility or the ability to have children.
What do you think?
Let us know if the Covid vaccine affected your period by completing our survey.
