NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Nashville OBGYN says that she talks to her patients every day to clear up misinformation about fertility in women and the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Jennifer Thompson, who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, recently talked to NewsChannel 5.
Dr. Thompson wants to reassure women of childbearing years that these vaccines won't harm you or your baby.
"There is no data to date that shows any association between the vaccine and infertility,” said Dr. Thompson. “Several studies have looked at this and found no impact on male or female fertility related to the vaccine. One study even looked at women who had been infected with COVID, women with the vaccine and women who had neither been infected nor received the vaccine and found no differences in fertility rates among those individuals. We do have some data that found COVID itself could lead to a difficulty in getting pregnant."
Dr. Thompson says other studies have shown that if you are pregnant and get the vaccine that you give your baby the gift of the anti-bodies produced by the vaccine.
"We do know with this Delta Variant that we are seeing younger people being affected needing to be hospitalized. We know that COVID infection can cause such devastating results in pregnancy if you get severe or critical infection needing to be hospitalized with mom losing their babies or losing their lives from COVID infection. We know those risks. We know the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing hospitalization, so I definitely strongly recommend anyone who is eligible to get vaccinated,” Dr. Thompson added.
She says there is no increase in stillbirth, miscarriage, birth defects or pre-term delivery when you compare those who received the vaccine and those who don't.
