Will you/would you have the vaccine if you're TTC?

[tootsytoo]

Just that really as looks like we may be offered a vaccine sooner than we thought, I'm mid thirties.

If I wasn't TTC there would be no doubt in my mind and I'd take it.

But I'm planning the conceive in the next 12 months and a bit torn over whether or not to have it and wandered other people's thoughts?

If yes/no then please explain thy reasons why.

[Worknoplay]

I'm afraid that weighing the pros and cons isn't quite fair at the moment. There is so much misinformation online, conspiracy theories, and people who are ready to make stuff up out of thin air to stop people taking up the vaccine. These are often the same people who are saying that Covid doesn't exist.

[Absy]

Yes.
I would because I have learned through bitter experience that there’s no guarantees around trying to fall pregnant, so if I was offered the vaccine I would take it. The only caveat on this is that I would discuss further with the consultant if the vaccination was given around the time I was starting IVF (likely for me in the next few months) to see if there could be any impact / interference with all the hormones / drugs you take. Though last time I had IVF it the only real weird side effect was sexy dreams about Daveed Diggs. I can live with that.

[Absy]

And, the guidance has changed. Around December last year the US Gynaecological governing body was saying it was fine, U.K. said no. It was then updated in around January saying that pregnant woman can be offered, but should discuss it with their healthcare provider. If you’re in a job (eg medical staff) where you’re more likely to get exposed you’re advised to take it. If your likelihood of being exposed to covid 19 is lower, then you could delay until after birth

[EarlGreywithLemon]

There is however evidence that a fever (which is likely with Covid) can affect a growing foetus. I'd much rather have the vaccine than risk catching covid.
DunravenBadger spot on.

[Berlioz23]

I’m a locum worker and the place I went to work the other day, one of their colleagues is in hospital on a ventilator and had to have a c section. She obviously hasn’t been able to see the baby since it was born, the baby itself doesn’t have COVID but is in NICU. Also if you develop a virus during pregnancy there is always a risk of foetal development problems and there is potential links to other illnesses later in life. I just feel the risks of the vaccine outweigh the risk of having COVID whilst pregnant but of course nothing can be 100% safe and it’s just a hard choice all round.

[Kmx123]

If I was only TTC yes I would get it and pause the TTC for a few months I wouldn't want to spend all my pregnancy worried I work in healthcare as the lady above and have seen pregnant woman with it and had to have csections andput in comas that now have organ failure

[unmumsymummy21]

I plan to start TTC once I've had my second dose. I wouldn't want to be pregnant without the protection of the vaccine, as pregnancy increases your risk. So I'm putting off TTC until I'm protected.

[KG1000]

@SunshiningBetty

Sorry... ‘it is now thought that it was not caused by the swine flu vaccine’

Really? I would be interested to see that research, if you wouldn't mind posting a link?

I know there have been a number of successful damages claims made by people who fell ill after taking the swine flu vax. The NHS website currently confirms the link too:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/narcolepsy/causes/

It is actually a very small number, but a link that was only made after the vaccine roll out.

[SunshiningBetty]

I think this was the study

In a presentation of the SOMNIA findings at a recent meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro — a CDC vaccine safety expert and a member of the SOMNIA team — used the analogy of an apple tree to explain the problem, known as “awareness bias.”

In the normal course of events, apples ripen and fall in their own time, but if you shake the tree, more apples fall at once. With narcolepsy, some of the people who are genetically vulnerable to developing the condition will be diagnosed with it over time. In some countries, however, the time from onset of the condition to a diagnosis can be years. But the publicity surrounding the problem — the tree shaking — may have brought forward narcolepsy diagnoses that might otherwise only have come to light later.

That could create an artificial spike in cases that appears to suggest a causal relationship between, in this example, the pandemic vaccine and incidence of narcolepsy — even if such a relationship doesn’t exist.

Conversely, the long lag between onset of narcolepsy symptoms and diagnosis could make it harder for scientists to detect a genuine phenomenon.

[Gwegowygwiggs]

I am 36w pregnant with DC2 and have absolutely no intentions of having it either now or while I'm breastfeeding. Personally for me, the risks of the unknown are just too great. I would like to add I am not an anti vaxxer. I had the flu / whooping cough jabs and would have the covid jab if time was on my side and we had more statistics on the side effects.

We are planning on having DC3 soon(ish) after DC2 as I'm not getting any younger, and if I breastfeed for as long as I did with DC1 and we are lucky enough to conceive again quickly, then I'll be either pregnant or breastfeeding for a number of years yet, which personally counts me out of getting the jab for a long time.

It's personal preference. I believe the threat of covid is very real, but I'm not willing to put myself or my children at risk for something which has almost no data on the effects to unborn / newborn babies. The risks are simply too great.

[EarlGreywithLemon]

Some sobering data:

“At the peak of the current wave, 9% of all patients in intensive care in the UK were either pregnant or had recently delivered a baby, she said. “We’ve seen some really sick patients in the last trimester [of pregnancy], and we’ve seen a threefold increase in early deliveries.”

Source: www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/28/covid-vaccine-does-not-affect-fertility-but-misinformation-persists

So, for me, the risks of Covid are too great.

[35andThriving]

Thanks for starting this thread, op. I have been wondering about this.

[nordica]

I would because I trust Jonathan Van-Tam when he says there's no biological reason why the vaccine would affect fertility, and other vaccines have not done so in the past either.

[Cloudyrainsham]

No I definitely wouldn’t.

[alreadytaken]

If just ttc absolutely, as soon as possible. Heard too many stories of women in ICU having caesareans before being ventilated and/or dying. This poor women was just 28 but at least her child got to 32 weeks and survived www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-54814396

The risk of being hospitalised is 3 times higher, risk of death 13 times higher in this study www.healio.com/news/primary-care/20210205/covid19-mortality-rate-elevated-in-pregnant-women

I wouldnt want to leave a possibly premature baby with no mother.

Would be more wary if actually pregnant and decision would be based on how well I thought I could hide from covid.

As covid may affect male and female fertility I'd also want my partner to have the vaccine when offered.

[EpiphanySoul1]

@tootsytoo all of the advice you have put here is for people who are pregnant not for people who are ttc. Obviously if you are ttc there are two weeks a month where you could already be pregnant or implanting an embryo so that is generally where the doctors ‘pregnant or ttc’ bit comes from - ie you could be pregnant and haven’t realised.

If you are worried, to be 100% safe you should track your cycles and then you will know when you get your appointment for the vaccine if you are pre or post ovulation. If you are going to be pre ovulation then all good, If you’re going to be post ovulation then you could use protection for that month so you know you’re not pregnant.

If you are planning to ttc I would highly recommend getting the vaccine as you will then be protected in pregnancy and won’t have to worry about getting covid while pregnant and impacts on the baby or yourself - a friend of mine was very unwell with a bad chest infection during one of her pregnancies and ended up having to take some medication not recommended in pregnancy on a ‘just in case’ basis and it was very stressful for her.
You also wouldn’t need to cocoon during pregnancy if you are protected which given when we have endured so far with covid would be good to be able to socialise worry free when the restrictions are lifted.

[EpiphanySoul1]

@Absy

Yes.
I would because I have learned through bitter experience that there’s no guarantees around trying to fall pregnant, so if I was offered the vaccine I would take it. The only caveat on this is that I would discuss further with the consultant if the vaccination was given around the time I was starting IVF (likely for me in the next few months) to see if there could be any impact / interference with all the hormones / drugs you take. Though last time I had IVF it the only real weird side effect was sexy dreams about Daveed Diggs. I can live with that.

@Absy

[AlexaPlayWhiteNoise]

@nordica

I would because I trust Jonathan Van-Tam when he says there's no biological reason why the vaccine would affect fertility, and other vaccines have not done so in the past either.

This. I am TTC and will take the vaccine when offered.

[EpiphanySoul1]

Four stillbirths among women with Covid-19 prompt alert to maternity staff on precautionary basis
via The Irish Times
www.irishtimes.com/news/health/four-stillbirths-among-women-with-covid-19-prompt-alert-to-maternity-staff-on-precautionary-basis-1.4501500

Part of a trend my microbiologist brother mentioned to me before about increasing signs that covid 19 can be very dangerous in pregnancy.

I would be even more convinced now that having the vaccine while ttc and before pregnancy is essentially a no brainier!

[everysunrise]

@Hopefulbride18 hello, please can you share with us how your pregnancy is going? X