False claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility are discouraging Americans from getting vaccinated, while healthcare workers find themselves needing to convince them that the frightening narratives they read online are unfounded. Among the worst examples of this type of misleading information circulating on Facebook is the claim that vaccinated men can cause infertility in unvaccinated women through sexual contact, and that 97% of those who received the vaccines will become infertile, with vaccines set to "render an entire generation infertile." Such claims pose a threat to the goal of the Biden administration to achieve herd immunity in the United States at a time when vaccination rates are already slowing.
Research published earlier this month revealed that nearly two-thirds of individuals who said they would "definitely" not get vaccinated fear the vaccine's impact on their fertility. Around half of those unvaccinated express concern about the possibility that "COVID-19 vaccines could negatively affect their fertility in the future," according to Ashley Kirzinger, the assistant director of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy organization that conducted the study. About 50% of women and 47% of men aged 18 to 49 who have yet to be vaccinated express such fears.
No Evidence
The initial exclusion of pregnant women from COVID-19 vaccine trials allowed misleading information to spread, as recent efforts by anti-vaccine groups coincide with a decline in the number of people seeking vaccination. Devon Grayson, a health communications professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, stated, "They are just recycling things that scared people about previous vaccines with respect to these new vaccines, whether or not they are scientifically rational." The messaging particularly targets women because "fertility is one of those things that we react strongly about and is highly personal. So, if you're looking for a boogeyman, using the message that 'the vaccines will make you infertile' is a very apt choice."
Catherine O'Connell White, an assistant professor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine, emphasized that "concern about fertility related to vaccines touches on the core of what it means to be a woman for many women." The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine jointly stated that "there is no evidence that vaccines can lead to fertility loss." Despite over half a million deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, vaccine hesitancy remains prevalent, with doctors finding themselves needing to reassure patients that there is no basis for their fears regarding infertility following vaccination.
