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

In fact given the likely more serious effects of covid, you’re gambling with your own health as well.

Maybe this isnt the right job for you.

Any one patient facing in a clinical setting needs to be vaccinated imho. Sorry.

As a health care professional you will have been taught to critically appraise literature and to balance risk. You should also be gaining a good understanding of NHS resources for advice.

Support for this type of reasoning is available from occupational health, the hospital vaccination teams, pharmacists in our teams are also a great source of up to date information alongside medical information. If you aren’t sure about this, your line manager should be able to direct you.

It would be helpful for you to reflect on your use of unregulated and non expert forums in supporting your decision making. Media articles and individuals feelings or experiences are not evidence or research.

There have been many, many threads on here alone about disrupted cycles, some people have said they haven't had a period for months and months, 6m, 7m. I dont think it can be coincidence.

This is the definition of anecdotal. You may be correct, though, in that it isn't a coincidence. Stress, anxiety, noticing little changes more because you've tricked yourself into the belief that there will be an effect, etc. We all know periods can be delicate in this way,but the reproductive system, in general, is stronger than a vaccine that targets the immune system (via the production of specific antigens). These antigens to confer immunity to the virus. They don't march down to your ovaries and mess things up there - they simply don't know how to do that.

And the government and whoever else do not have our best interests at heart, they do what benefits them. They told everyone thalidomide was safe...

You're repeating a tired meme. Thalidomide was not a vaccine, anyway. And what makes you think the Government don't have your best interests at heart by asking you to have a vaccine to - keep you alive and healthy?

bringmelaughter

Excellent post

They told everyone thalidomide was safe...

At the time Thalidomide was prescribed for morning sickness there were not strict rules around the licensing and provision of drugs to women in pregnancy, in fact when Thalidomide first got the market it was available over the counter without a prescription. Medical/scientific consensus at this time was that medications and their side effects could not cross the placenta anyway so it wasn't a case of them not caring or lying, it was a case of them not knowing better.

Thalidomide! BINGO!

Another line in the ant-vaxxer script. Thalidomide is safe, but not in pregnant women. It is still used today as a cancer treatment.

www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/treatments-and-drugs/thalidomide

Oh ffs. As if you’re comparing the covid vaccine to thalidomide

OP is not coming back I don't think, not now the anti-vaxxers have swarmed all over it.

But that’s not how vaccines work. They don’t remain in your body for long enough to produce long-term effects. Any side effects are very immediate over the first days after a vaccine, because it “teaches” your body how to fight the virus, then dissipates. It doesn’t stay in your body for a lengthy vacation or something.

Anybody waiting to find out about long-term effects of a vaccine is going to be waiting for that evidence for a very long time, surely?

1. Drs we’re not aware drugs could pass the placenta (this was 70 years ago!!!)
2. Thalidomide was sold OTC
3. Thalidomide was never tested on pregnant women
4. There was very little side effect reporting in the 50/60s
5. As a result of the thalidomide tragedy the U.K. government now have vastly differing policies on authorising drugs

How many have you have actually worked in clinical trials??? I know for a fact that if there was a WHIFF of the vaccine being harmful to fertility or pregnancy the vaccine would be PAUSED in pregnant women while they investigated. Stop spouting such utter rubbish because someone who needs this vaccine may read it and believe you!!

The Op and anyone else in this boat should talk to the lead for the vaccination program or a trusted health care professional, NOT some random stranger on the internet who clearly knows very little about drug trials!!

So come on @3Britnee, explain how a vaccine can have long term effects. What precedents are there?

My husband (big, strong 36 year old) has had his quality of life destroyed by long covid - he’s tired, has brain fog, has lost 2 stone as he can’t eat anything as it all tastes and smells disgusting to him. The vaccine has been trialled, it has passed and the technology behind it has been in development for decades - you have had lots of sound advice on here. Have the vaccine, don’t risk it.

Exactly. No one knows what he long term effects of the vaccine will be either

No, not exactly. This is not the "gotcha!" moment you think it is.

There has never, ever been a case of someone suddenly showing side effects to a vaccine they received several years earlier. Vaccines simply don't work that way and they don't remain in your system any longer than a few weeks at most.

The vaccine enters your system, tells your immune system "hey look out for this threat" and then it dissipates. A booster dose might be given a few weeks later, as with the covid vaccine, which double checks your immune system got the message then that too dissipates. There is no vaccine in your body at that point. Your immune system then encounters the threat it was warned against and, because it was prepared, it has a better chance at fighting it off.

Vaccine side effects become apparent very soon after the vaccine is given and while the vaccine is still in your system. These could range from immediate - e.g., anaphylaxis - to within a few hours/days/weeks - e.g., sore arm at the injection site, feeling generally unwell due to the immune response. Even more serious and rare side effects such as blood clots occur within a few weeks and while the vaccine is still present in your system.

Over two billion people worldwide have had at least one vaccine dose, over one billion have had two doses. Vaccines have been administered for over a year now including the clinical trials so if there was an increase in global infertility rates we would know about it now. There is no mechanism within the vaccine that could affect fertility and no evidence that it can do so. This does not mean there is no evidence that it doesn't affect fertility (also not a "gotcha!" moment), science doesn't work that way. What we do have in Column A - headed 'the vaccine does not affect fertility' - is evidence that it does not affect fertility. What we have in Column B - the vaccine might affect fertility - is nothing except a conspiracy theory with no actual data to support it. Column A, with data and evidence attached to it, is the most likely to be true.

Op I am a mum already and infertility in anyone breaks my heart. So absolutely investigate and be informed on every decision relating to your health and lifestyle that could affect your fertility.

That means seeking medical advice. Can you contact your GP (or specialist if you have one) to discuss your fears.

But I also think there’s been some really useful information on this thread for you to think about. Other posters who have PCOS have had the jab and are now pregnant. My SIL is not on mumsnet but she is double jabbed, has PCOS, is 36 and is now pregnant after 14 years of trying. My entire family is over the moon for her.
The comments about how covid can affect your fertility is also something I hope you take into account. I’m not a scientist but it made me think: aren’t vaccines designed to replicate a disease but in a mild way so your body learns to fight it and that gives you the immunity? So any side effects are milder side effects of the actual disease? So on that basis then getting covid would have a much greater impact on your fertility??
I hope you do more research by consulting with medical professionals and that you are successful in TTC. Best wishes

Not to mention the MMR.

What about the MMR?

There's video of girls in wheelchairs in ireland confronting a panel after having the HPV vaccine.

Long-term side effects are not the same thing as side effects suddenly appearing several years later. I presume one of the girls you're talking about is Rebecca Hollidge? Side effects became apparent within ten days of the Gardasil vaccine, that's not several years later. As I posted earlier, with all vaccines the side effects become apparent very soon after being given and while the vaccine is still in your system.

Theres evidence of Bill Gates trailing vaccines on poor school kids in africa even after they'd seen negative effects.

Is there now? And how does this show that side effects suddenly appear several years later?

Not to mention the MMR.

What about it?

Most long term side effects show up within days if not weeks which is why we waited a couple months to authorise the vaccine.

Also, pray do tell - what does the mmr do?

There's video of girls in wheelchairs in ireland confronting a panel after having the HPV vaccine

that wasn't long term - they showed the signs immediately. In the UK, girls with bad side effects were told to shut up and their parents told they'd be accused of Munchausen's by Proxy if they didn't shut up. The powers that be don't like inconvenient complaints about vaccines (or other medications come to that).

But the point stands - you will know immediately if there are problems, there won't be sudden problems in five years' time.

However, as I said in my first post, don't use MN, use the authoritative professional sources available to you. What use if the NHS library service if you decide to come to MN first? For goodness sake use the resources available to you.

@WaxedNotVaxed

I won't get sacked for not having it, but I will definitely be judged and it'll make it awkward on my small team who have openly said they can't understand why anyone wouldn't get the vaccine

Then tell people you’ve had it if you want, and don’t get it.

Whether you take the vaccine or not is your personal medical information OP: you don’t owe anyone in your team that info barring your manager (if it’s relevant to which roles you can do/which patients you can be around), and they won’t share that elsewhere either. And if anyone is nosy or rude enough to ask don’t feel a scrap of guilt about lying.

There's video of girls in wheelchairs in ireland confronting a panel after having the HPV vaccine

Theres evidence of Bill Gates trailing vaccines on poor school kids in africa even after they'd seen negative effects

There's loads of instances

Not to mention the MMR

All excellent sources of peer reviewed evidence of the side effects of vaccines that first occur years after a vaccine. And MMR. Of course the author of that particular lie is a respected medic. Oh wait, no. he's been struck off.

I believe if the mmr and autism link has mentioned in a thread you know you’ve lost the arguement because that was SUCH a credible piece of research that the dr was struck off and has since admitted lying.

However, you’re never going to win an argument against Stupid, because Stupid does not listen to sense, only stupid.