{"id":13821,"date":"2021-05-03T14:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T21:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/?p=13821"},"modified":"2021-05-03T14:59:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T21:59:00","slug":"some-people-are-reporting-abnormal-periods-after-a-covid-19-vaccine-u-of-i-professor-is-looking-for-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/03\/some-people-are-reporting-abnormal-periods-after-a-covid-19-vaccine-u-of-i-professor-is-looking-for-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Some people are reporting abnormal periods after a COVID-19 vaccine. U. of I. professor is looking for answers."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0NICOLE STOCK<\/a><\/strong>CHICAGO TRIBUNE\u00a0|APR 20, 2021\u00a0AT\u00a05:00 AM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Katy Fyksen got a heavy period a few days after she received her second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, she didn\u2019t consider there might be a link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 43-year-old Plainfield woman hadn\u2019t had a period in over a year and a half because of her Mirena IUD, so the sudden red flow was a surprise. But she didn\u2019t think about the timing in relation to when she received her vaccine until she saw a\u00a0Twitter thread<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really think that it was anything until I saw that someone had said that, that it might\u2019ve been a symptom or a side effect of the vaccine. It was like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s interesting,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tweet was from Kathryn Clancy, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,\u00a0who posted<\/a>\u00a0April 7 about a new survey she\u2019s running to catalog people\u2019s menstrual experiences after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey<\/a> is a joint effort between Clancy and Katharine Lee, a postdoctoral research scholar at Washington University School of Medicine. As of Monday, Lee said more than 25,000 people have filled it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, there have been only anecdotal reports of menstruation changes following the COVID-19 vaccines, and experts emphasize there is no sign of danger in getting the vaccine, nor is this a reason to skip getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clancy and Lee were inspired by their own experiences with abnormal menstruation following their inoculation, and wanted to document the experiences of others. They said they initially expected 500 people to respond to the survey; instead they hit that mark in a few hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clancy outlined her personal menstruation experience in a February tweet<\/a>, after receiving her first dose of the Moderna vaccine. Hundreds of women and people who menstruate replied in the comments with their own experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Twitter user wrote<\/a>, \u201cI haven\u2019t had a period in years and I\u2019m about 3 weeks out of my second shot and I\u2019m gushing blood I freaked out but now I see I\u2019m not the only one. This is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another responded<\/a>, \u201cTwo weeks exactly after shot number 2, my cycle started 12 days earlier and heavier than it\u2019s been for the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ended up finding a lot of people with similar experiences,\u201d Clancy said. \u201cBut also, to be fair, a lot of people who were like, \u2018Really, I noticed nothing,\u2019 and some people who said, \u2018Actually I had the opposite, where I\u2019ve had a later or lighter period.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the study will look at trends, Lee said, they won\u2019t be able to determine cause and effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur survey cannot tell us anything about prevalence or the number of people who are affected,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWhat we can do is look for associations and trends that help us direct whatever the next study would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Rakhi Shah, an OB-GYN at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, said she doesn\u2019t see a way the COVID-19 vaccines could affect menstruation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s really no biological mechanism that is plausible in terms of how that could be possible,\u201d Shah said. \u201cI think that potentially people are having normal menstrual pain plus the aches and pains that are associated post-vaccine, and maybe combining all of that together and associating it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Julie Levitt, an OB-GYN at Northwestern Medicine said two patients have come to her with concerns specifically related to their periods after getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBleeding occurs for so many reasons that it\u2019s really hard to isolate the two,\u201d Levitt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also said the COVID-19 vaccine could be creating a hormonal spike that could trigger bleeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA hormone rises, it goes down, you bleed a withdrawal bleed. But is that a bad thing? No,\u201d Levitt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levitt emphasized that this was not a subject of concern, nor a reason to stop taking birth control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. 1, I wouldn\u2019t worry. No. 2, contact your doctor if you want to talk about it to gain that reassurance,\u201d Levitt said. \u201cIf it does continue after a few weeks following the administration of the vaccine, it probably is something else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clancy said those experiencing abnormal period symptoms after getting the vaccine should talk to a doctor if they are concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you are a post-menopausal person who has experienced bleeding, you should really talk to your doctor,\u201d Clancy said. \u201cAnd if you have any significant or concerning symptoms alongside your changes to your menstrual cycle, you should also see a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fyksen, the unexpected period was over in about seven days, and she said that even if it was related to the vaccine, it was worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very happy to be fully vaccinated. If that\u2019s the worst of the side effects I have, then we\u2019re good with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

nistock@chicagotribune.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0NICOLE STOCKCHICAGO TRIBUNE\u00a0|APR 20, 2021\u00a0AT\u00a05:00 AM When Katy Fyksen got a heavy period a few days after she received her second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, she didn\u2019t consider there might be a link. The 43-year-old Plainfield woman hadn\u2019t had a period in over a year and a half because of her Mirena IUD, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13822,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13821\/revisions\/13822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.functionalps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}