Covid vaccine does not increase risk of miscarriage: Study

PTI, Oct 31, 2023, 5:08 PM IST

Representative image (source: iStock)

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine prior to conceiving does not increase the risk of early or late miscarriage, according to a study.

The research, published in the journal Human Reproduction, provides deeper insight into the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people planning to become pregnant.

It is the first study to evaluate the risk of early miscarriage — less than eight weeks’ gestation — following COVID-19 vaccination.

The team led by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), US, hopes that these results provide useful information for individuals planning to become pregnant, as well as their healthcare providers.

”These findings should be replicated in other populations, but are reassuring for couples who are planning pregnancy,” said lead author Jennifer Yland, who was a PhD student at BUSPH at the time of the study.

Yland and colleagues analysed data on COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage among female and male participants in the BUSPH-based Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), an ongoing study that enrolls women trying to conceive, and follows them from preconception through six months after delivery.

Participants included 1,815 female individuals in the US and Canada who were followed in the study from December 2020 through November 2022.

They were observed from their first positive pregnancy test until a miscarriage or other event such as induced abortion, whichever occurred first.

Among the female participants, 75 per cent had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the time they became pregnant.

Almost a quarter of the pregnancies resulted in miscarriage, and 75 per cent of these miscarriages occurred prior to 8 weeks’ gestation, but there was no increased risk, the researchers said.

Risk of miscarriage was 26.6 per cent among unvaccinated female participants, 23.9 per cent among female participants who had received one dose of the vaccine before conception, and 24.5 per cent among those who completed a full primary series before conception.

The risk was 22.1 percent among those who completed the vaccine series three months before conception, and 20.1 per cent among those who received only one dose of a two-dose vaccine before conception.