Does Covid Vaccine Impact Male Fertility? Here's All You Need To Know

The potential negative impact of COVID-19 vaccines on male fertility has been one of the many reasons for vaccine hesitancy across the world

Image: PTI

Coronavirus Vaccine: While there has been much negative information running around on social media related to the Covid vaccine, some claiming of developing magnetic powers to some saying menstruating women shouldn't take the jab. While all this news has turned to be fake, another concern that has been doing rounds on social media lately was that taking the Covid jab would lower the sperm count in a male.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against CVOID-19 do not harm male fertility, suggests a new study published in the journal JAMA.

The study, which involved 45 healthy male volunteers aged 18 to 50 years, found that the levels of sperm in participants remained at healthy levels after they got two doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, reports said.

How was the research conducted?

The participants were pre-screened to ensure they had no underlying fertility issues. Those with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result within 90 days were excluded.

The men provided a semen sample after two to seven days of abstinence, prior to receiving the first vaccine dose and approximately 70 days after the second shot.

Semen analyses were performed by trained andrologists as per World Health Organization guidelines and included semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and total motile sperm count (TMSC).

What were the results?

In the study of sperm parameters before and after two doses of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, there were no significant decreases in any sperm parameter among this small cohort of healthy men, the researchers found.

Sperm concentration and total motile sperm count at the beginning of the study were 26 million/milliliter (mL) and 36 million, respectively.

After the second vaccine dose, the median sperm concentration significantly increased to 30 million/mL and the median TMSC to 44 million.

Semen volume and sperm motility also significantly increased, the researchers said.

Because the vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, it is unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters, they said.

Does Covid 19 impact male fertility?

In a report published in the journal Reproduction in January this year, researchers had said that COVID-19 can cause increased sperm cell death, inflammation and so-called oxidative stress.

"These findings provide the first direct experimental evidence that the male reproductive system could be targeted and damaged by COVID-19," the authors concluded.

Experts commenting on the research, however, said the capacity of the virus to compromise fertility in men remains unproven.

(With PTI Inputs)