Covid, women, data, and menstruation - Caroline Criado Perez' newsletter

[ArabellaScott]

I recall seeing many women on here talking about covid vaccines causing breakthrough bleeding, and now it seems that's been confirmed.

'default male of the week' part, scroll down.

https://newsletter.carolinecriadoperez.com/p/invisible-women-literally-bloody

'... last month saw the publication of the latest study showing a link between the Covid vaccines and “unexpected vaginal bleeding.” Researchers in Norway collected data on women who don’t menstruate, either because they’re menopausal or because they’re on long-acting contraception such as the coil, and found that they were significantly more likely to experience a bleed after they received the vaccine. Premenopausal women were up to five times more likely to have an unscheduled bleed, while post-menopausal women were up to three times more likely to find that after not having bled for over a year (which is the current clinical definition of being post-menopausal — a rant I’ll save for another day) they were suddenly bleeding again.'

...
'...the spread of misinformation about the vaccines’ impact on fertility cannot be solely attributed to the actions of conspiracy theorists like Wolf, nor even to social media algorithms. Because while the story may have originated there, the context of data gaps in which it festered and flourished? That was created by the medical and research establishment. And until they get serious about filling in the gaps in our knowledge about the female body, until they start understanding that the principle of informed consent applies to women as well as men, until they start taking women seriously when they talk about their own bodies, this will continue to happen, women will continue to be harmed — and I will continue to write about it all..

And she said on Twitter that her TikTok post has been taken down for misinformation - the irony!

FFS!

Thank you so much for posting this 🙏

I love this woman. I’ve just finished reading this weeks newsletter and I’m furious at the gaslighting and misinformation that’s been put forward because, well, women don’t know their own bodies.

This happened to me, frightening surprise period after a year without any. I was sent to the hospital for an ultrasound by my doctor. I had to walk nearly four miles because my car had broken down (not all bad, I found 50 pence 😃). It was worrying but no-one mentioned the vaccine and, obviously, I didn't know to ask.

I don't remember misinformation about this. I remember being lots out there about the effects on periods etc before I had mine. Mine were also affected following the vaccines reaffirming what I had read

Thank you for posting this.

I am peri and it sent mine a bit wild. Or maybe peri did but it's good to know it may have been a factor.

Not menopausal or peri or with contraceptive-induced amenorrhea but definitely affected.
Had second jab on second day of period. Next one was flooding a 12h mooncup in two hours - ended up on TXA for first time in my life.

Cycle went from 29 days to 35 once things settled down.

I'm not going to even go into the Zoe app asking for 'gender' instead of sex.

But really, medicine needs to wise the fuck up. We are half the population. We matter. And we are different from men.

This was a good example of the way covid stuff was treated overall.

All they really had to do was say, we don't know yet if this is a thing, until we crunch the data, but if it is, here is what it could mean, and here is what it does not mean. It was totally possible to give that kind of information.

Why did people treat it as "misinformation"? Because they would not admit that there were unknown or unexpected things about the action or effects of the vaccines, because that could mean there might be other unknown or unexpected things. And they were pushing the idea that there was no risk and any concern about risk was pseudo-science bs.

The vaccine made my period start unexpectedly, and one of my daughters had odd periods for a year. I wasn't terribly worried in either case but the fact that people dismissed it was concerning to me. The same way they dismissed the possibility of heart effects. Idiots.

The vaccine gave me flooding for 10 cycles. To the point I couldn't go to work as I was bleeding through an ultra tampon, night pad and through a bath towel on my chair every 30 minutes on 3-4 days each month. The doctors just shrugged and said to fill in a yellow card.

Yep.

Honesty inspires trust. It's fairly straightforward. When health messaging tries to obfuscate, it damages that trust.

I'm expecting to be open to criticism here, but I opted not to have any doses of the vaccine.

I caught Covid early as my partner was working in the NHS at the time, so I figured natural immunity would suit me just fine.
I'm not anti vax, I'll take anything and everything if properly tested.

But that being said, I remember vividly not long after the vaccine was put out to the public scientists were trying to say it was 100% safe to take if pregnant. Or at least the media was saying that scientists were saying that.
When it was a literal impossibility for them to have tested and to know for certain that there were no negative side effects.

To me, it was bad enough that they were asking everyone to pretend medications and vaccines don't typically have to go through years of rigorous testing and trials before public use, then the "100% safe for pregnancy" on top was just the final straw for me.

Queue a little while later and we get these reports of menstrual changes?
Sorry, but no. Not for me this one.
I'll probably take it at some point down the line when/if it's refined and more studies are done, but until then there remains a lot that I have questions about with no answers.