Covid-19 Vaccination
Impact on IVF
A research letter issued in JAMA Network Open
has found no variation in clinical outcomes for in vitro fertilisation (IVF)
via intracytoplasmic gamete injection (ICSI) between COVID-19 vaccinated and
unvaccinated ladies of procreative age.
“Our study was galvanised by a necessity for literature on the topic
of COVID-19 vaccination and fertility,” aforesaid principal investigator Emily
Jacobs, MD, a first-year reproductive medicine and infertility fellow medical
practitioner at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “Around the time of the
rise of the third variant, infertility patients were still uncertain regarding
COVID-19 vaccination because of issues for the potential impact on fertility,
despite some previously printed literature that disputed such claims.”
Jacobs noted that previous studies on the subject were curbed to examining frozen embryo transfer cycles and IVF cycles with frequent use of ICSI for insemination, each of those being conditions that don't occur in I vivo conception.
The retrospective cohort study, which was conducted at the University of Iowa, consisted of 142 vaccinated patients and
138 unvaccinated patients, all of whom underwent IVF-fresh embryo transfer
cycles between December 2020 and September 2021. Most patients were young, nulliparous
and overweight.
In the vaccinated cluster, 89.7% were totally
vaccinated and 10.6% partly were vaccinated. The mean time from the last vaccination to
gametocyte retrieval was 93 days.
There was no variation in mean female
internal reproductive organ reserve antral cyst count between the two groups:
23 for the vaccinated vs. 24 for the unvaccinated (P = 0.42).
The mean female internal reproductive organ
response days of gonadotropic hormone stimulation were even comparable: 9.8 vs.
9.6, respectively.
In addition, the mean range of oocytes
retrieved were similar: 14 vs. 15, respectively.
The mean range of usable embryos created by
the 2 teams was also equivalent: each four.
However, vaccinated patients achieved
considerably higher mean fertilisation rates than susceptible patients: 77.45%
vs. 68.66%, respectively (P = 0.03).
But after accounting for age and body mass
index (BMI), there have been no important variations in the current
clinical maternity rate and the miscarriage rate between the 2 teams.
There was also no variation in these two
outcomes for traditional insemination-only cycles.
“Although it's renowned that vaccinations
normally promote a nonspecific immune response, there's no famous strong
biological credibility that COVID-19 vaccination impairs feminine fertility,”
Jacobs told contemporary OB/GYN. “Thus, we weren't shocked to find out that
there was no side effect of reproduction -- gametocyte yield, embryo
development, clinical pregnancy -- that was impaired in those that had COVID-19
vaccination compared to people who were unvaccinated.”
Despite higher fertilisation rates in
COVID-19 immunised patients, “we cannot draw conclusions on this finding, given
our study wasn't high-powered to observe a variation during this outcome,” Dr.
Jacobs said. “Still, the finding reinforces that there's no determinantal
impact of COVID-19 vaccination on feminine fertility.”
Study results are often used to reassure
infertile the fertile and unfertilised populations that COVID-19 vaccination
doesn't negatively impact any element of reproduction, in line with Dr. Jacobs.
“The final outcome for any IVF study is birth
rates that we tend to set up on sharing within the coming months,” she said.