Have you been vaccinated for COVID-19?

[lizmonster]

Apparently it's a thing vaccinations can do, not just those against COVID. Although I never experienced it before my booster. So you'd think it's a thing they'd warn about beforehand.

IIRC you're not in the US, but around here, it's cliche that nobody warns you about anything that messes with your cycle. I'd been on the Pill for years before I learned antibiotics can alter its effectiveness, and I didn't learn that from the doctor who prescribed it to me (who also often was prescribing the antibiotics). When I asked about it, he acknowledged it, but seemed a little annoyed with me. (He didn't like being questioned, which caused me to fire him halfway through my pregnancy with The Kid.)

More on topic: TIL vaccines can affect menstrual cycles. Not a concern for me anymore, but worth letting The Kid know. So thank you for that.

 

[lorna_w]

Totally random, one thing I do wish they had mentioned before the vaccination is how likely it is it will bork up your period. I only heard it was possible afterwards and after a very unpleasant weekend. If I had known, I could have taken precautions.

Apparently it's a thing vaccinations can do, not just those against COVID. Although I never experienced it before my booster. So you'd think it's a thing they'd warn about beforehand.

It delays it, on average, from starting by less than a day. No effect on fertility. Heard an interview with a woman on author list of the study. If that's borking, my own system borked me that badly about 1/3 of the time anyway.

 

[ElaineA]

Totally random, one thing I do wish they had mentioned before the vaccination is how likely it is it will bork up your period. I only heard it was possible afterwards and after a very unpleasant weekend. If I had known, I could have taken precautions.

Apparently it's a thing vaccinations can do, not just those against COVID. Although I never experienced it before my booster. So you'd think it's a thing they'd warn about beforehand.

Interestingly, even though I had a hysterectomy a few years ago, I was included in a study conducted on the effects of the Covid vax on menstrual periods. They were obviously gathering the full range of data (and some of the questions were relevant for me). I remember hearing about this after the first round of vaccines, but only because I follow a Very Social Media Savvy gynecologist on Twitter, and she RT'd the scientist looking for study subjects.

Anyway, yes, it's a thing they are investigating, and for some people it's a profound effect (related to bleeding but not fertility.) I'm not really surprised it's not widely warned about, though, in light of 1) Covid-vax hesitancy, and 2) the fact that most people aren't getting their vax at the doctor's office, but at a pharmacy or mass-vaccination center. The HCWs there aren't really qualified to have those conversations with patients.

 

[Friendly Frog]

IIRC you're not in the US, but around here, it's cliche that nobody warns you about anything that messes with your cycle. I'd been on the Pill for years before I learned antibiotics can alter its effectiveness, and I didn't learn that from the doctor who prescribed it to me (who also often was prescribing the antibiotics). When I asked about it, he acknowledged it, but seemed a little annoyed with me. (He didn't like being questioned, which caused me to fire him halfway through my pregnancy with The Kid.)

More on topic: TIL vaccines can affect menstrual cycles. Not a concern for me anymore, but worth letting The Kid know. So thank you for that.

It's not just in the US, by the sound of it, although you might have it worse. But it's rather like since you have a womb, you're supposed to - idunno- intuitively know this stuff? Learn it from your mother or something? When no one told her either? The female hivemind?

For instance, I did not know that about antibiotics either.

It delays it, on average, from starting by less than a day. No effect on fertility. Heard an interview with a woman on author list of the study. If that's borking, my own system borked me that badly about 1/3 of the time anyway.

Yeah, no. A day of delay is not the only effect noted. People reported not just variations in starting date but also variations in length, volume and discomfort. Not all that many together I hear, over here they've only had a 1000 people report changes in their period. (Still lots more than those with blood clots, just saying.) But I'm guessing there are probably more that didn't bother with reporting it.

I know I didn't, because I didn't think it was the vaccine. With a period that often borks all on its own, and no indication about a borked period being a possible side-effect, who thinks about a connection with the vaccine you had almost two weeks earlier? The side-effects I was warned about were all long gone by then.

I know I wouldn't even have noticed a day delay. But my period right after the booster was the worst I could remember. I debated contacting my gynaecologist because it was that bad I was starting to think something was wrong. I couldn't sleep the first night of my period as I was in too much discomfort.

Frankly, vertility was the farthest thing on my mind. I was seriously contemplating whether I could I ask beg to have the whole lot torn out. "Free womb, one previous owner, never used, willfull bugger, will go to good home, any home, frankly. "

TL;DR: Knowing ahead of time would have spared me quite a bit of discomfort and anxiety.

 

[frimble3]

Hey, this may be deleted by Mods, but I'm gonna say it:
The reason this particular side-effect was never really brought up is because it's a 'woman's problem'.
You think that otherwise all the anti-vaxxers wouldn't make a screaming fuss? And, if it affected men's reproductive organs, (even just a rash, say) there would be a heck of a lot more anti-vaxxers.

 

[TeresaRose]

Finally boostered! Yay!