COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual disturbances: A prospective study from Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate whether or not immunization against COVID-19 is associated with changes in the duration and frequency of the menstrual cycle. Methods: This prospective analysis included the menstrual cycle data of 154 females after COVID-19 vaccination from August 2021 to March 2022. This study included Pakistani females aged 18 to 45 years and who had taken at-least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination. After two months of COVID vaccine the participants were interviewed again about the timing and duration of their menstrual cycle. The increase in menstrual length for >eight days was labelled as increased menstrual cycle duration. Results: Mean age of participants was 33.53±8.52 years. Among 154, 113 (73.4%) were married. Among 154 females, menstrual abnormality was reported by 59 (38.3%) females, increase in cycle duration was reported by 25 (16.2%) patients and decrease by 22 (14.3%), increase in number of bleeding days by 20 (13%) females and decrease by 15 (9.7%), increase in pain intensity was reported by 19 (12.3%) females and decrease by 17 (11.0%), increased intensity of blood flow was reported by 20 (13.0%) patients and decreased intensity by 19 (12.3%) females. Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccination is not associated with menstrual abnormalities in a significant number of females. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.7.8709 How to cite this: Parveen N. COVID-19 vaccination and menstrual disturbances: A prospective study from Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.7.8709 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.