To think there's a link - shortening menstrual cycles and covid vaccine?

[HelpMeHiveMind]

I want to be clear im in no way advocating that people should not get the vaccine.

I have another post in Health, where I was actually wondering if this could be peri menopause (I'm late 30s) and maybe it still is. Periods moving forward by a week or so each time and have done for about the last 5 cycles.

But others started responding that they too have experienced this since their covid vaccines, I've looked online a bit more and found others saying the same. Yet all the "official studies" I can find just talk about a temporary short lived (eg 1 or 2 cycles) change and generally refer to different length cycles, not them moving forward.

I'm just wondering how many others have experienced this, what the implications are, when / if it went back to normal and why there aren't more studies about it - or maybe there are and I've not found them? Or, are there lots of late 30s / early 40s ladies starting peri menopause at the moment (possibly completely unrelated to vaccines)?

I was just 49 when first vaccinated, and whether it is coincidence or not I will never know, but I went from normal to very symptomatic for peri-menopause in a matter of weeks. Am on HRT but definitely not back to where I was before.

In the grand scheme of things I would rather be vaccinated than not but I do wonder whether we will ever get to a point where the impact of new medical interventions are ever tested for impacts to women.

I’m 39, I generally take my pill back to back to avoid periods. After second moderna had a extra period and haven’t been right (even with break from pill) since. I didn’t have an extra bleed after Pfizer booster, but my friend that had moderna did. I do think there is a link from anecdotal experience of friends.

@VaulterTech

I’m 39, I generally take my pill back to back to avoid periods. After second moderna had a extra period and haven’t been right (even with break from pill) since. I didn’t have an extra bleed after Pfizer booster, but my friend that had moderna did. I do think there is a link from anecdotal experience of friends.

Mine was AZ and woke up the next morning Tina heavy period, entirely different to the normal breakthrough bleeding on the rare occasion I forget a pill

I’ve never bothered tracking my monthlies since I started at 14 as they’ve always been 28 days.

Got my vaccine and I was 40 days then 38 days (spent a fortune on pregnancy tests!) in the last 8(?) months I’ve only had one cycle at 28 days with the others between 29-33 days. I used to class starting in the afternoon on the 28th day as ‘late’.

If I went to the GP I think I’d be laughed out the room.

When I had covid there was no change, when I was bedridden and lucid with a virus for well over a week there was no change, nothing with flu or my other 30 jabs I’ve had as an adult.

I’m not saying it isn’t the vaccinations as I fully accept these are real symptoms reported by people but could it be a result of mass stress due to a pandemic ? Lifestyle changes due to lockdowns etc ?
I do think every angle needs investigation as it’s clearly a real issue but is the cause the vaccine ?
My own dd very clearly had some kind of issue a week after her first vaccine so I lean towards that being possible I really do. However it’s not just the vaccine that is ‘new’ the fact we’ve had a pandemic - is is the psychological issues with that or is it covid itself , or could it be a reaction in just those who had covid then also had the vaccine we do need to look into it

Lot of people on here saying "late 30s, could be perimenopausal" but apparently only 1% of women under 40 are so surely all us can't be?

I’m early forties and take my pill through so I no longer have periods except for a break once or twice a year. I can’t comment on whether the vaccine does or doesn’t alter the menstrual cycle, as obviously nothing changed for me, but in my experience my cycle did change in my mid thirties. I’d always had a 32-34 day cycle but this suddenly switched to a 28 day, regular as clockwork cycle. This made my constant anaemia and PMS even worse which is why I ended up trying the pill in the first place.

I got a very short cycle just after my second shot of Pfizer, and they were very heavy. Almost twice a month.
Luckily, just after my booster of Moderna, they got back to 1 month cycle, and heavy but ok, as they were before the second shot.

I am not perimenopausal, and was not stressed at all after the second shot.

I'm don't get why some people are, so sure, it's NOT the vaccine. I especially like the "no credible studies, so therefore, women who bring it up are wrong." Comment.
It seems bizarre; lots of things affect periods, so why not this? I don't think anyone here has used it as an argument not to get vaccinated. Have they?

My experience was a significantly delayed period after each vaccine, the first by 5 weeks. Then, there were a couple of episodes of spotting. I have friends who report similar issues. I use a period tracker.
I was glad to hear they will be investigating these reports further.

I've been bleeding irregularly since I had my booster in October, being investigated by gp but reading this makes me wonder if the jabs caused it. I'd still recommend getting vaxxed though.

I think Covid and the vaccines do something funny to your hormones.

Menstrual cycle was out of sync both times after AZ and had bad menstrual migraines.

After two bouts of Covid had really sore hormonal breasts. It did settle down.

Am not perimenopausal as far as I am aware.

This is probably the only time that women of menstrual age have been mass given the same vaccine. That means that a lot of, but not all, issues may not be linked to the vaccine at all but are just the usual ebb and flow and changes in menstrual cycles that we get as we age or get stressed etc, but because such a high percentage of the population has been vaccinated, a lot of those changes that might have happened anyway can be linked to it in terms of timing.

So in short, possibly there is an issue, most likely it is short term, and almost certainly a significant number of issues are probably unrelated and just attributed to the vaccine because of the coincidental timing.

And the Covid vaccine isn't the only vaccine to have reports of disruption on menstrual cycle. It's a known thing and is to do with the body's immune response, much like periods can be delayed when you are ill, stressed, etc.

From what I've read there doesn't seem any mechanism for longer-term changes to cycles.

My periods starrted getting shorter about 1 year before I got the Covid vaccine, at age 40. I have noticed no impact from the vaccine.

@drpet49 And yet you yourself have no proof that vaccines do not affect menstrual cycles. That face that so many women have been affected is obviously “hearsay”.
I wonder why some people find the thought that vaccines might have harmful affects so outrageous.
Anyway, this thread is bound to be pulled soon as this site calls these sort of ‘wrong thinking’ concerns “ misinformation”.
No doubt they are preparing the next lot of ridiculous gov propaganda to be fronted by the equally ridiculous Dr Amir Khan - one of the meedia doctors who most certainly have had an extremely good pandemic.
Wonder when these doctors find the time to actually see any patients.

Looking back at my calendar, it does coincide with my Pfizer booster. (Firsf 2 was AZ.) I also noticed that my period gor a bit heavier recently, which I don'f mind as they were so light before, I was worried about peri menopause.

I have to say, even if it turns out there is a connection between the vaccine(s) and changes to periods, I'll take my renewed bleeding over Covid any day.

@comfortablyfrumpy Oh me too - hence why I stressed I'm not advocating not having the vaccine! Even if there was a link, I don't at all regret getting vaccinated and would do again....but it would be good to have a bit more understanding as the timing just seemed coincidental especially when I started seeing others saying similar

@NameNo101 yes that was my confusion exactly

All my hair dropped out, I’ve had covid twice and nearly died since being vaxxed (it could have been so much worse) and my periods have stopped/started ever since. I am 29 but am obviously going through the peri menopause. But I’m still SO glad I got vaccinated!”

I had my first vaccine in June and ever since then my cycles have gone from 35 days (like clockwork) to 28-30. I also get cramping throughout my cycle. I have emailed my gp about it.

Mine seem to have gone the other way, I haven’t had a period since my 2nd jab last June.

My cycle has definitely been affected after each vaccine and the booster. I find it sad that people are so dismissive of it and putting it down as one big coincidence. “There hasn’t been any evidence of this in research” yes of course there hasn’t - this is all very new and research is focusing on Covid rather than menstrual cycles. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a connection.

Interesting to read a post saying shorter cycles after pfizer until moderna booster, as looking at the dates my cycles went back to the normal 28 days after the moderna booster, having gone down to 25 days after pfizer!