Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Oct 6;40(42):6023-6034.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.09.019. Epub 2022 Sep 12.

The impact of COVID-19 vaccines on fertility-A systematic review and meta-analysis

D Zaçe  1 , E La Gatta  2 , L Petrella  2 , M L Di Pietro  2
Affiliations
Review

The impact of COVID-19 vaccines on fertility-A systematic review and meta-analysis

D Zaçe et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Background: Despite literature's evidence about COVID-19 vaccines' safety, concerns have arisen regarding adverse events, including the possible impact on fertility, accentuated by misinformation and anti-vaccine campaigns. The present study aims to answer the question: Is there any impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the fertility of men and women of reproductive age?

Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane and Embase databases were searched for eligible studies until June 8th, 2022. The search was restricted to articles regarding humans, published in any languages, without additional restrictions. Studies' quality was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa and the Before and After Quality Assessment scales for cohort and pre-post studies, respectively. Random-effect meta-analyses were performed for parameters considered in ≥ 2 studies, calculating means, p-values and 95 % Confidence Intervals (CIs).

Results: Out of 1406 studies screened, 29 were included in the systematic review. These studies, conducted in Israel (34.5 %), USA (24.1 %), Russia (20.7 %) China (10.3 %), Italy (3.5 %), North America (3.5%) and Turkey (3.5 %) were of poor (34.5 %), moderate (58.6 %) and good (6.9 %) quality. Meta-analyses were performed for pre- and post-vaccination sperm progressive motility (44 %, 95 % CI 42 %-62 % vs 43 %, 95 % CI 31 %-59 % p = 0.07) and concentration (50.6 mln/ml, 95 % CI 35.1-72.8 vs 55.4 mln/ml, 95 % CI 37.4-82.2p = 0.12). Biochemical (0.51, 95 % CI 0.40-0.66 vs 0.60, 95 % CI 0.53-0.68p = 0.45) and clinical (0.45, 95 % CI 0.37-0.54 vs 0.47, 95 % CI 0.40-0.55 p = 0.31) pregnancy rate did not differ among vaccinated and not vaccinated groups. Subgroup meta-analyses based on the type of vaccine showed no significant difference: between vaccinated with mRNA vaccines and non-vaccinated regarding biochemical pregnancy rates; pre- and post-vaccination with Gam-COVID-Vac regarding testosterone, FSH and LH levels; pre- and post-vaccination with BNT162b2 vaccines regarding sperm volumes.

Conclusion: Based on the studies published so far, there is no scientific proof of any association between COVID-19 vaccines and fertility impairment in men or women.

Keywords: Adverse effects; COVID-19 vaccines; Female infertility; Fertility; Male infertility; Reproduction; SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of the screening and selection process.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Progressive motility a) before and b) after vaccination.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Spermatozoa concentration a) before and b) after vaccination.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Sperm volume a) before and b) after vaccination.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Biochemical pregnancy rate in the a) vaccinated and b) non vaccinated group.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Clinical pregnancy rate in the a) vaccinated and b) non vaccinated group.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Estradiol levels in the a) vaccinated and b) non vaccinated group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Adamyan L.V., Vechorko V.I., Elagin V.V., Dashko A.A., Doroshenko D.A., Stepanian A.A., et al. COVID-19 vaccine does not affect male reproductive health (based on RNA-sequencing data) Problemy Reproduktsii. 2021;27(5):8. doi: 10.17116/repro2021270518. - DOI
    1. Aharon D., Canon C.M., Hanley W.J., Lee J.A., Lederman M.A., Stein D.E., et al. Mrna COVID-19 vaccines do not compromise implantation of euploid embryos. Fertil Steril. 2021;116(3) doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2021.07.215. - DOI
    1. Aharon D., Lederman M., Ghofranian A., Hernandez-Nieto C., Canon C., Hanley W., et al. In Vitro Fertilization and Early Pregnancy Outcomes After Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination. Obstet Gynecol. 2022;139(4):490–497. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000004713. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aizer A., Noach-Hirsh M., Dratviman-Storobinsky O., Nahum R., Machtinger R., Yung Y., et al. The effect of coronavirus disease 2019 immunity on frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles outcome. Fertil Steril. 2022;117(5):974–979. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.01.009. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Asghar N., Mumtaz H., Syed A.A., Eqbal F., Maharjan R., Bamboria A., et al. Safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines; a systematic review. Immunological Medicine. 2022;1–13 doi: 10.1080/25785826.2022.2068331. - DOI - PubMed