After months of cycling through anecdotal claims that Covid-19 vaccines may be affecting menstrual cycles and calls for more studies, you may be yearning for some real scientific evidence.
Of course, your menstrual cycle ain’t like an atomic clock. It’s not even like a game show clock. If you use your menstrual cycle or any other bodily function alone to keep track of time, you’re probably going to miss a whole lot of meetings. You menstrual cycle is not always going to remain the exact same length and instead, may vary month-to-month to different degrees. Therefore, not surprisingly those who went unvaccinated in the study experienced some degree of fluctuations as well.
Even when such cycle lengthening was seen, such increases appeared to be only temporary. Among the vaccinated, most of the observed increases occurred in the cycle immediately following vaccination . By the sixth menstrual cycle, only two cycles later, cycle lengths for the vaccinated group for the most part reverted back to where they had been before vaccination.
So what does this all mean? Well, it wasn’t super surprising to see some changes in menstrual cycle length in the cycle immediately following vaccination. After all, your menstrual cycle depends on chatter among different parts of your body such as your hypothalamus, pituitary glands, ovaries, and the lining of your uterus.
Such experiences can bring some momentary stress to your body. This in turn could potentially affect your hormone levels and potentially the lining of your uterus for a short period of time. When it comes changes in your body and watching, duration is important. Short temporary changes happen all the time, just like your “accidentally” switching toon your TV. It’s the longer term persistent changes that may matter more.