Menopause / or Did your periods change after Covid vaccine?

[DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo]

I'm 51 and last had a period more than 2 years ago. After my Covid vaccine in Feb, my periods 'started again'.

It looks like there are quite a few post-menopausal women who have had the same, and some non-menopausal women who've had their menstrual cycles go awry.

www.redonline.co.uk/health-self/self/a36457082/post-menopausal-women-bleeding-covid-vaccine/

If this applies to you, please do contact your GP for advise and/or to register your experience.

It's not necessarily a problem, but women do
Often accept situations that could do with being explored in more detail, so please do make your experience count if you can.

Hi ,
I have my vaccine booked in a week , but after reading so much about the menstrual problems women are reporting I am really concerned . I am 41 and my periods are already a nightmare. What should I do ???

Get the vaccine.

"There was an article on BBC a few weeks ago essentially quite patronising saying there's no evidence for this, women are paying attention and thinking there's something when there isn't. Don't worry."

That is very patronising of them, and also is not how it works. If you have an adverse event, you are MEANT to report it, not to just assume that you must be imagining it. It is only by people reporting their adverse events that the vaccine safety teams can detect safety signals in the statistical data. One of the H1N1 flu vaccines was associated with narcolepsy in rare cases. Imagine if those parents or their doctors just said, "Well, narcolepsy is not something we would expect to see with a flu vaccine. Probably he's just sleeping more than usual, we must be imagining things. Nothing to see here." Ladies everywhere, if your menstrual cycles change significantly after the vaccine, or you have some other strange adverse event, please report it to whatever safety database is used in your country. Then, allow the epidemiologists and statisticians to do their work.

Not caught up.

My point was that as ever, initially women saying there's something going on was dismissed.

This is a more general point. A thing about how women in general are treated by healthcare systems and pharmaceutical companies in general. Vaginal mesh. Side effects of pill.

I said clearly in my posts that I have had 2 jabs now. I'm perimenopausal so no idea if it's changed anything as all over the shop anyway.

I did look on the net a fair bit and I'm not expert but it seems the virus itself disrupts menstrual cycles and stuff for men as well quite a lot. So makes sense that it does something a lot less but around that with the vaccine.

I was just utterly pissed off at the patronising article saying don't worry ladies you're imagining it.

When do we start being trustworthy??!!

Anyway. Out of interest.. What does the yellow card thing collect? I can see allergic reaction etc it's good but 'disrupted my period' what help is that?

Daysee- get the vaccine

Yes!

1st vaccine 14 days between my cycle. Thats never happened before.

2nd vaccine 3 weeks late. Then a really heavy period.

I'm always around 25 to 28 days.

I really hesitated to yellow card it as im 43 and my gynae dismissed it and said all women have irregular periods in thier 40s but I did in the end.

Funnily enough I had covid in April 2020 and my cycle went nuts for 3 months after that.

@Daysee

The reaction I had wouldn't have stopped me getting the vaccine.

What I’m confused about is if you’re post menopause it means you have no eggs left, so what exactly is bleeding?

Ladies , thank you for your input . This is what I came across ...
www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n958/rr-2

When I went for my second jab this week they were asking all the second timers what side effects they had and were noting them down on their laptops so anyone due their second jab should definitely mention it at the appointment.

What I’m confused about is if you’re post menopause it means you have no eggs left, so what exactly is bleeding?

It's the lining of your uterus, the endometrium. That lining is part of your immune system and helps protect you from bacteria and viruses getting into your body via your vagina and uterus, even when you're not having periods you have a lining there. The lining can be shed even without ovulation, I had fertility problems and didn't ovulate even once for over three years but still had a period every month. The endometrium can also become inflamed as part of an immune response, in this case a response to the covid vaccine, and then sheds itself as a result.

Illness and immune responses can also delay shedding. I do ovulate nowadays (pointlessly) but if I'm ever ill around the time of ovulation then I know my period will be late as ovulation will be delayed so that all energies are concentrated on germ fighting.

After having covid my period was very late but my boobs were sore. I thought I could be pregnant as I was so confused & i'm never late.

Had the vaccine a month late, periods ok but very sore boobs days before.

Wow.
I'm on mirena, have been for about 6 months and although not quite period free, I had a period start about a week after my first vaccine.
I was also outrageously angry. I never suffer with PMS or my emotions going awry, but this period has been emotionally awful. Will report. Thank you for this thread!

Yes, me, and I was on the Novavax trial.

@ADragonCalledKeith

Wow. I'm on mirena, have been for about 6 months and although not quite period free, I had a period start about a week after my first vaccine. I was also outrageously angry. I never suffer with PMS or my emotions going awry, but this period has been emotionally awful. Will report. Thank you for this thread!

I was the same, in terms of PMT symptoms. Pre-menopause I got off lightly in terms of anger... this time round I was enraged 😡

My period started for one day and stopped again, then started again and is still going 18 days on. Very annoying. Mine are generally fairly irregular, so I'm not worried about it, but I have just reported via the Yellow Card thing. It makes me really angry how often women's symptoms get dismissed. But I am also very angry anyway right now, completely period-related!

Thanks for the link to the Yellow Card report site!

I ended up off work for two days with a hideous period not long after my vaccine. I haven't had a period for over a year ( on pill) and have never been off work with them in my life.

I had a 19 day cycle after my second dose. Thankfully it seems to have returned to the normal 29 days now.

Gosh, it really seems very wide spread doesn't it.

I know it's likely to be a non-serious side effect, but it does say something that most of us are conditioned to think weird, uncomfortable and erratic changes to cycles are 'just one of those things' rather than something that warrants exploration.

No, periods did not change at all

I've had both doses

Article here on increased menstruation post vaccine. They reckon it's being massively underreported and even then thrombocytopenia has now been classed as a common side effect (1 in 10 rather than 1 in 100). Low clotting factors can lead to serious health problems. I wonder just how prevalent this is given even on this thread there are plenty people who have never heard of the yellow card scheme.

www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n958/rr-2

@Toty - even the title of that report doesn't really make it clear, does it.

This is another reason I'm not going to be pushed into the vaccine.
I don't understand how this didn't emerge as an issue of concern from the trials, which we are told skipped no stages, were not fast-tracked and were as thorough as any other medical trial. In the same way I don't understand how blood clots didn't get discovered or flagged up before mass distribution either. I was reading mainstream media articles quoting doctors dismissing these concerns as conspiracy theories or women just making it up to discredit vaccines or just fantasists. It was "impossible". Now it's "we're looking into why". Makes you wonder what else will emerge from the mass distribution trial stage we're in!!

Cycles since are a few days longer, more PMS symptoms but only bleeding for one or two days, whilst that lasted 5 days before. I'm 35. Not fun when actually TTC...

*@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo

No it doesn't, seems like it's about thrombosis in general rather than menstruating or menopausal women. Thrombocytopenia in 1 in 10 seems high to me, although I know it will be short lived in some, but very serious for others.