COVID-19 vaccination does not reduce chance of pregnancy after intrauterine insemination
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- There were no differences in pregnancy rates after fertility treatment for vaccinated vs. unvaccinated women.
- The older age of the study’s vaccinated cohort did not affect results.
BALTIMORE — COVID-19 vaccination status did not significantly reduce the likelihood of becoming pregnant after intrauterine insemination, according to findings presented at the ACOG Annual Clinical & Scientific Meeting.
“This is a real-world study of pregnancy success rates after intrauterine insemination procedure, which helps to address the ongoing public health questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on fertility,” Savannah D. Groves, BS, third-year medical student at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and Albert L. Hsu, MD, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at the University of Missouri Health Care, told Healio. “It also helps provide guidance to clinicians and their patients who may seek intrauterine insemination and other fertility services. This is important, as intrauterine insemination is more affordable, less invasive and more accessible than in vitro fertilization.”
In this real-world study, researchers evaluated data from 138 women who underwent intrauterine insemination (IUI) procedures at the University of Missouri Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinic from October 2021 to December 2022. COVID-19 vaccination status was self-reported via telehealth visit before IUI. All women were categorized based on their COVID-19 vaccination status before IUI.
The primary outcome was pregnancy after IUI verified by a positive serum pregnancy test.
Overall, 109 women (mean age, 33.5 years) were vaccinated against COVID-19 and 27 (mean age, 30.4 years) were not. Of the vaccinated women, 93 had a positive pregnancy test after IUI compared with four unvaccinated women. Researchers observed no statistical differences for positive pregnancy tests after IUI among vaccinated and unvaccinated women (14.7% vs. 14.8%, respectively).
“Readers may find it surprising that our cohort of vaccinated women was an average of 3 years older than our cohort of non-vaccinated women, yet there was still no statistically significant difference in pregnancy success rates following IUI,” Groves and Hsu said.
Researchers observed no statistically significant difference in pregnancy rates between COVID-19 vaccinated women and unvaccinated women (P = .9858).
“Further studies may investigate the impact of possible confounding factors, such as paternal vaccination status, number and type of COVID-19 vaccines received, and other relevant factors that impact fertility,” Groves and Hsu said. “Future research should also consider long-term pregnancy outcomes for women who have had COVID-19 illness and/or COVID-19 vaccinations.”
For more information:
Savannah Groves, BS, can be reached at williamssav@health.missouri.edu.
Albert L. Hsu, MD, can be reached at hsual@health.missouri.edu.