To not know where to turn about vaccine fears?

[WaxedNotVaxed]

I've started a new job in the NHS, I'm patient facing and there is pressure being put on for me to get the covid vaccine as soon as possible.

My fears are that I have PCOS and have always struggled with my periods and my cycles used to be 100+ days. Since having a baby a few years ago I have a 29 day cycle and I don't want to mess with this?

I'm scared about the vaccine making me infertile? Or having long term impacts on my reproductive health? It's scary enough with PCOS and I definitely want another child.

I'm overall just a bit skeptical as a 26 year old woman who wants more kids and has PCOS to get a vaccine without long term studies for a virus id likely only be mildly ill from?

I can't say this at work but I feel really anxious over it

No PCOS etc. here but had been struggling to conceive after a chemical pregnancy last October. I had my first jag on the 10th of June, right before my fertile week and I'm now 7 weeks pregnant. I will also be getting my second one in a couple of weeks.

Ultimately its your decision and right not to vaccinate if you choose but that's my experience.

The thing is the research that's out there isn't going to show the long term affects, they just aren't going to be known yet.

Nor are the long term effects of covid. We really don't know yet how it might affect people in the long term. For all we know, covid itself could have an impact on fertility. Seems unlikely to me but probably just as plausible as the vaccine causing it.

@WaxedNotVaxed

So I should quit the career that I've studied years for because I, as a young women, have fears over the long term fertility impacts of a still very new vaccine?

Worlds gone mad.

Yeah, I think so. I'd say the same if you were a man worried about it giving you prostate cancer.

I world worry that if it becomes mandatory for your role once everyone has had the chance to get it in a few months and you are then TTC or pregnant - would you feel more or less comfortable getting it then, and how stuck would you be if you had to leave your role while pregnant? It doesn’t look like the government are planning any exemptions for pregnant women for vaccine passports, I don’t know how it will be for NHS roles. Is there any exemption for hepatitis jab etc?

OP, have you done much reading about the impact of COVID on pregnant women?

In the last wave there were a number of pregnant women in our ICU and the outcomes weren't all positive.

Could you perhaps clearly write here what you're worried about?

I do understand being generally anxious but you haven't pointed to any evidence that your worry is based on.

The thing is the research that's out there isn't going to show the long term affects, they just aren't going to be known yet.

Vaccines don't work that way. Side effects, even rare ones with a long reaching impact, tend to show up fairly soon after the vaccine is given. Side effects don't just suddenly show up years down the line.

[quote toconclude]@samwitwicky

And the vulnerable people she might kill?
Presumably they can fuck off too?[/quote]
Not quite.

But the vulnerable people visiting hospitals surely must be able to recognise that there may be vulnerable people working in those hospitals, hence may not have had the vaccine?

Why is it acceptable to say NHS staff should have the vaccine? We are people, just like you.

Covid is far more likely to fuck up your fertility than the vaccine.
And also far more likely to make you seriously ill and leave you with other complications.

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth-versus-fact

I’m a GP. For the best advice on this and where I would go for well considered and evidence based advice would be the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG). This is the link to their current advice, released on Monday:

www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/coronavirus-covid-19-pregnancy-and-womens-health/covid-19-vaccines-and-pregnancy/covid-19-vaccines-pregnancy-and-breastfeeding/

Hope this is helpful in making your decision!

@WaxedNotVaxed

So I should quit the career that I've studied years for because I, as a young women, have fears over the long term fertility impacts of a still very new vaccine?

Worlds gone mad.

But it's not because you're a woman, it's because your choice will impact the specific role that you work. Lots of vulnerable people will have the vaccine but will still be susceptible and it's unfair that they would then be in close proximity to someone who has voluntarily chosen not to have the vaccine over unproven fears. Fully appreciate your concerns but ultimately the priority should be doing what's best for the patients.

As if the thousands and countless female NHS workers of reproductive age who have had the vaccine are suddenly all infertile

@standupsitdownturnaround

The vulnerable people would have had the vaccine though?

No vaccine give total protection. It’s the duty of HCP’s to protect those in their care to the best of their ability, and I say that as someone who was a nurse for 25 years.

@WaxedNotVaxed

So I should quit the career that I've studied years for because I, as a young women, have fears over the long term fertility impacts of a still very new vaccine?

Worlds gone mad.

I take it that you studied the importance of research-based practice rather than hunches?

@standupsitdownturnaround

The vulnerable people would have had the vaccine though?

It doesn't offer nearly as much protection for those on immunosuppressant drugs and/or steroids. Anything like methotrexate and you're basically still shielding except for... going to hospital.

Sorry @DismantledKing I was replying to someone else who said vulnerable patients will expect some staff to be vulnerable and hence not had the vaccine.

I was trying to say being a vulnerable staff member wouldn't mean you hadn't had the vaccine. There are very few people who can't have it and patients could quite fairly assume most staff have had it.

Just to pull this quote out from the RCOG which is also echoed in every other medical article.

Q. Does the COVID-19 vaccine affect fertility?
There is no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines will affect fertility.

There is no biologically plausible mechanism by which current vaccines would cause any impact on women's fertility.

@samwitwicky but the OP isn't vulnerable. She's choosing not to have the vaccine against scientific advice.

I’m a doctor working in the nhs vaccination clinics. Any of the clinical staff at the vaccine sites would be absolutely happy to speak to you without judgement to discuss your medical history and to answer any questions that you have and allow you to make an informed decision. We can advise on the basis of current evidence as well as discuss what is not yet known, but we would always be honest and our role would be to support you to come to a decision that’s right for you. It would also be completely fine to go to a vaccine appointment to have that discussion and then to go away and think some more once you’ve had chance to speak to someone. To arrange that discussion, you could either make an appointment for a vaccine and tell the team on arrival that you are undecided and would like to speak to someone, or you could ask your line manager to put you in touch with the vaccination team looking after your workplace. Only you can decide, but accurate information and open discussion is really important to help you to make your decision. That’s definitely best done one to one rather that on a forum such as this. Good luck with your new job.

I don’t understand why you think that the vaccine will affect fertility? Where has there been any evidence of that? It seems like a really random thing to fear.

I’m a teacher, so also facing hundreds of people in close proximity every day. Also of child-breading age, and I don’t have any children yet. I couldn’t get that vaccine faster when they finally opened it up to us, we went unprotected so long in the teaching profession.

Anyway, I’m all for bodily autonomy, but it seems like a strange reason not to get a vaccine.

It's not a hunch that it can affect your cycle. I have regular periods for the first time in my adult life after only ever having about 2 periods a year due to my PCOS. I hope to start TTC for my second next year and would be devastated if my cycles went to shit again making it so difficult to become pregnant that I am practically infertile. I did a degree alongside raising a baby to start my career within the NHS and to be told that I should have to lose everything I've worked so hard for or get a vaccine that could cause fertility issues for me when I want to try and have another baby within a year is heartbreaking. Of course I care about patients but is it that wrong to care about my health and my fertility too? I feel so fucking stuck.

[quote sammysnake]@samwitwicky but the OP isn't vulnerable. She's choosing not to have the vaccine against scientific advice.[/quote]
As is her right. Whatever her reasons.

@SachaStark

I don’t understand why you think that the vaccine will affect fertility? Where has there been any evidence of that? It seems like a really random thing to fear.

I’m a teacher, so also facing hundreds of people in close proximity every day. Also of child-breading age, and I don’t have any children yet. I couldn’t get that vaccine faster when they finally opened it up to us, we went unprotected so long in the teaching profession.

Anyway, I’m all for bodily autonomy, but it seems like a strange reason not to get a vaccine.

I read that after 150,000 or something women have had the Moderna vaccine, there is now going to be research into the effects of the vaccine on pregnant women.

This does bring up the question of fertility also, no?

@samwitwicky of course, but she should not be in a client facing role because that wouldn't be putting the care of the patient first.