"If the vaccination would make you sterile, then a corona infection would have to do it all the more": Researchers explain
Created: 01/04/2022, 02:36 PM
There is no evidence that corona vaccination has any effects on fertility.
Still, the argument persists with young people.
© Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
"Have you been vaccinated against Corona?" To this question, young people sometimes answer: "No, I still want to have children." Is that a legitimate concern?
A fact check.
Every single vaccination counts on the way to get the pandemic under control.
Currently, every adult in Germany can be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But especially among young people, it is often argued against the injection that they do not want to obstruct the desire to have children.
Claim: The corona vaccination makes you sterile.
Assessment
: There is no evidence that a corona vaccination has any effects on fertility *.
The Standing Vaccination Commission recommends vaccination for women who wish to have children and for pregnant women from the 2nd trimester (from the 13th week), as pregnant women in particular have an increased risk of a severe course.
Vaccination is also recommended for breastfeeding women.
Facts
: The rumor that a corona vaccination could make you sterile is so persistent that the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) addresses it in a question-and-answer piece. In the area of "Vaccination for pregnant women, breastfeeding women and those wishing to have children", it is said, especially on the Internet, that vaccination makes women or men sterile: "This statement is false."
The RKI then lists several points that underpin these words:
In the non-clinical studies before approval of the vaccines, there was no evidence of the occurrence of infertility after vaccination
.
In the approval study by the manufacturer Biontech, twelve women among the vaccinated and eleven women in the placebo group became pregnant within the two-month follow-up period.
Studies as a basis: Corona vaccination has no influence on hormone levels
The RKI also names a study from Israel.
Data from 36 couples who were undergoing treatment for artificial insemination and who had been vaccinated during this period were evaluated.
The institute
announced that there was no difference in the number and quality of the egg cells obtained or the sperm parameters examined before and after the vaccination
.
A current study from Israel also looked at female fertility in connection with the corona vaccination.
At the Schiba Hospital near Tel Aviv, the level of the anti-Müller hormone was monitored in 129 women who had been completely vaccinated with Biontech.
This provides information about how many egg cells a sexually mature woman produces.
The result was that the vaccination had no effect on the hormone level.
According to a study by the University of Miami, men also do not have to worry about their fertility in the course of the corona vaccination: Before and after the administration of two doses of an mRNA vaccine
, the sperm of the 45 men examined between 18 and 50 years of age were equally fit.
Jena researchers refute claim
How did the misinformation that vaccination makes women infertile even come about?
Researchers at the University of Jena give an answer to this: They refute a claim that has been widespread on the Internet that the antibodies formed by the immune system after the mRNA vaccination are directed against components of the placenta.
"
Neither from previous experience with pregnant women suffering from Covid-19 nor from the perspective of placenta research can the claim be substantiated,
" says Ekkehard Schleußner, Director of the Clinic for Obstetrics.
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The mRNA vaccination creates a kind of spike protein of the coronavirus. The virus protein bears a tiny bit similar to the syncytin-1 protein. This is involved in the formation of the placenta during pregnancy. However, the similarity is limited to a sequence of 5 out of 1273 amino acids in the spike protein and 538 amino acids in the syncytin-1 protein. The sequences are not even identical
because they differ in the middle amino acid.
"
This is where the myth should have its origin,
" writes the University of Jena.
For years, however, antibodies against a protein that is much more similar to the syncytin-1 protein have been used in the therapy of certain autoimmune diseases.
Numerous experiments have shown that this has no effect on placenta development.
In addition:
If the vaccination would make you sterile, then a corona infection would have to do it, emphasizes the University of Jena
.
Because in the event of an infection, the potential antibody formation is significantly higher and also more unpredictable than in the case of a vaccination.
There is no particular similarity between the spike protein of Sars-CoV-2 and the protein syncytin-1
,
which is important for the formation of the placenta
, explains virologist Lars Dölken from the University of Würzburg to the German press agency.
And the RKI adds: “According to this logic, the infection with Covid-19 should also make you sterile.
However, this was also not observed anywhere in the world. "
Corona vaccination is recommended for pregnant women
Pregnant women are particularly at risk of developing severe Covid-19 *.
This is shown by data from the "Cronos registry study", which examines the condition of mothers and babies if the mother becomes infected with Covid-19 during pregnancy.
The recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) therefore recommend corona vaccination with an mRNA vaccine from the 2nd trimester onwards.
There are very few reasons against vaccinating expectant mothers.
This includes a known allergy to one of the ingredients.
(dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.