Can corona vaccinations make you sterile?

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.

There are many rumors circulating about the Covid-19 vaccination that are spreading uncertainty. The main concern of young women, but also parents, is that the vaccinations could render them sterile. But that is not the case.

The same number of pregnancies among vaccinated people

The all-clear in this regard was given by the largest phase 3 study on the Comirnaty vaccine from BioNTech / Pfizer. 38,000 people took part - half received the vaccination, the remainder a placebo. The prerequisite for participation in the vaccination study was a negative pregnancy test for female test subjects.

The participants were also required to use contraception during the study period. Nevertheless, some of the vaccinated and unvaccinated participants became pregnant - in the group of vaccinated women, 12 women were even more than among the unvaccinated.

Why corona antibodies do not harm the placenta

But how are vaccines supposed to endanger fertility in the first place? The fears relate primarily to an (alleged) structural similarity between the spike protein of the Covid-19 pathogen Sars-CoV-2 and the body's own protein syncytin-1 - which is involved in placenta formation. The antibodies that the body produces as a result of the vaccination against the spike protein of the virus could also be directed against syncytin-1 - so the concern.

But this is unfounded: in fact, the similarity of the two proteins is limited to just 0.75 percent of the more than 1000 amino acids that make up the spike protein. In concrete terms, it contains a sequence of five amino acids (VVNQN) at a single point, which does not even correspond to a five-digit syncytin-1 sequence, but only resembles (VVLQN). The agreement is far too low to trigger an immune response to syncytin-1.

In addition, the sequence in question is also within the structure of syncytin-1. A corresponding antibody could not dock there anyway.

And there is another argument: According to this logic, the infection with the virus should make itself even more sterile. Because this also forms the spike protein against which the antibodies are directed. Attacks on the placenta have not been observed anywhere in the world with the more than 239 million Sars-CoV-2 infections.

Sperm don't suffer either

Not only for women and girls - men and boys also get the all-clear: in the case of artificial insemination, the sperm of vaccinated men proved to be no less agile than that of unvaccinated ones. This is confirmed by a study from Israel with data from 36 couples who were in fertility treatment for artificial insemination (IVF) during the period of the Covid-19 vaccination. The quality of the egg cells was also equally good in both groups.

Another American study examined the sperm parameters of 45 men before and after vaccination with 2 doses of an mRNA vaccine. Differences? Here too: Nothing.

A lack of vaccination protection is particularly risky if you want to have children

The spread of the legend that the corona vaccinations make sterile is currently endangering one group of people: pregnant women and their children.

Since the immune system shuts down in the event of pregnancy so that the body does not reject the child, pregnant women are more likely to develop Covid-19 more seriously than women of the same age who are not pregnant, even at a younger age. In addition, a Sars-CoV-2 infection also threatens the unborn child.

Women who want to have children should not be deterred by misinformation about the vaccination.

Tags:  laboratory values tcm magazine