Pregnant or TTC women and the vaccine

[DoveGreylove]

Will you take it? Should we be concerned about the possible side effects?

I’m having fertility treatment in March, so I expect I won’t be having the vaccine until after pregnancy (if the treatment is successful!)

@TheJunctionBaby

JS87 But this is not like a standard vaccine. It's an mRNA vaccine. Which is new territory.

Unlike conventional vaccines, which are produced using weakened forms of the virus, RNA vaccines are constructed using only the pathogen’s genetic code.

Many standard vaccines work by injecting a dead or weakened form of the pathogen into the body in preparations that are designed not to make you sick but rather to build immunity. The key to building this immunity is that the portion of the pathogen called the antigen trains the immune system to recognise and respond to the infectious agent.

RNA vaccines work by introducing into the body a messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence that contains the genetic instructions for the vaccinated person’s own cells to produce the vaccine antigens and generate an immune response

We have no idea what the long term effects of genetically modifying our cells could be.

As an immunologist I’m well aware of how they work. They don’t genetically modify our cells. The mRNA will exist transiently inside the cells where it is injected (after the lipid nanoparticles it’s inside are taken up by the cells). The viral proteins are then synthesised and then processed and presented the immune system. This is really not so different to a traditional vaccine where the dead virus is also taken up by the cells where it is injected and broken down and processed and presented by the immune system

There isn’t really any reason to think there would be any difference in long term effects. Any long term effects would be if your T cells of antibodies reactive to the viral proteins happened to cross react with normal tissue. That would depend on your genetic makeup and would be the same whatever vaccine was used or if you had a natural viral infection. Different adjuvants may effect the strength of the immunity primed and which cells have taken up the vaccine or the virus but the fact it’s mRNA won’t. It’s just another way of getting the viral proteins into the cell. The mRNA has a very short half live so won’t be around for long either. You’re not going to carry on making the viral proteins for more than a few days, maybe a week at most?

I'm TTC and definitely won't have it until I (hopefully) conceive. It will be my last baby so I would after, and I personally wouldn't mind taking it when bf. I'm still bf my 5yo a bit, would I really have to wait an additional 5 years?! No one ever considers natural term breastfeeders.

It says in the guidance that the impact on fertility is unknown. So surely if you're child bearing age and want more children, it's a risk too far?

I'm completely pro vaccine BTW. I take everything offered. I'd be more inclined to take the Oxford one if still TTC by the time I reach the front of the queue.

Don't forget, if you're pregnant, TTC or breastfeeding you should be taking vitamin D anyway to protect against a range of conditions like preeclampsia, multiple sclerosis, developmental conditions, depression etc in both mother and fetus in their later life. Having blood levels of 75 - 150 nmol/ is optimum for health, and 2000 - 4000 iu per day is the amount to achieve that level. 4000 is the upper level recommended by the NHS... levels above that are not toxic or dangerous, but there's very gradual increasing risk of elevated calcium in the blood at high D3 intake. ~4000 is the "Goldilocks" amount between optimal health and no risk of calcium out of whack.

There's also lots of incoming compelling scientific research (in scientific journals from research hospitals and leading universities)... not the "wellness bloggers" type, that adequate vitamin D is strongly protective against covid. Vitamin D deficiency is actually a form of immuno deficiency which means you can't effectively fight off pathogenic infections.

Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost Nine of Ten COVID-19 Deaths
www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/12/3642/htm

Low plasma 25(OH) vitamin D level is associated with increased risk of COVID-19 infection: an Israeli population-based study
febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/febs.15495

COVID-19: Scientists raise the vitamin D alarm
www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2020/10/01/COVID-19-Scientists-raise-the-vitamin-D-alarm#

Vitamin D Prophylaxis Can End The Pandemic (same scientist as above, PhD researcher at Imperial College London working on Vit D/Covid data analysis)
blog.gruffdavies.com/2020/10/20/vitamin-d-prophylaxis-can-end-the-pandemic/

His biog is here: www.gruffdavies.com/covid19-research-bio

British Medical Journal, collates 40 studies on vit D/covid
Vitamin D Mitigates COVID-19, Say 40+ Patient Studies (listed below) – Yet BAME, Elderly, Care-homers, and Obese are still ‘D’ deficient, thus at greater COVID-19 risk - WHY?
www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3872/rr-5

Thank you @BahHumbygge I'm taking 4000ui a day 👍 thanks to the threads on here.

For those wondering about the effects of a vaccination on fertility, I would strongly encourage you to seriously weigh up the effects of covid on fertility. We are already aware that it can cause inflammation of the testicles which is linked with a decline in fertility but it’s going to take a rather long time for that to be confirmed/noticed and it’s very much the same for females.

My personal stance is that a vaccine is designed to have as little impact on the body as possible, covid is completely uncontrolled and will spread throughout the body where ever it’s able to.