A study resolves the controversy… Is there a relationship between Corona vaccines and a decrease in the reproductive rate?

The “Russia Today” website reported that mRNA vaccines have become the focus of global controversy during the “Covid-19” pandemic, as fertility concerns have emerged as one of the most complex dilemmas in accepting these vaccines.

But this controversy began to gradually decline with the emergence of the results of extensive studies based on factual data and accurate statistics, examining the relationship between receiving the vaccine and fertility rates on a large scale, paving the way for a clearer understanding and less affected by rumours.

In this context, a recent Swedish study from Linköping University announced clear results that categorically refute these allegations, as it concluded, after analyzing data from tens of thousands of women, that Covid vaccines have no relation to a decline in fertility rates.

This study, published in the journal Communications Medicine, confirms what other research in different countries has previously indicated, shifting the course of the discussion from focusing on the role of the vaccine to searching for realistic, social, and economic explanations for this decline.

In the study, the researchers analyzed all women between the ages of 18 and 45 in Jönköping County, a total of nearly 60,000 women (out of a total county population of 369,000). Of these women, 75% had been vaccinated one or more times against Covid-19 from 2021 to 2024. The researchers used data on births, vaccination, miscarriages and deaths from health records.

When the researchers compared birth and miscarriage rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated women, they found no statistically significant difference between the two groups. This is in line with several previous studies that found no association between the Covid vaccine and fertility.

“We conclude that the mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 is unlikely to be behind the decline in birth rates during the pandemic,” said Thomas Timpka, professor of social medicine at Linköping University. He added: “We do not see a difference in birth rates between those who received the vaccine and those who did not receive it. We also looked at all recorded cases of miscarriage among those who became pregnant, and we did not find a difference between the two groups there either.”

Researchers believe that the decline in birth rates has other, more likely explanations. People who are now in their 30s, the most common period for childbearing, were born in the second half of the 1990s. This is a period that witnessed financial difficulties and a decline in birth rates in Sweden. In other words, the pool of current potential parents has become smaller because birth rates declined 30 years ago. Factors related to the pandemic may also have contributed to the decline in childbearing, such as health and economic concerns and behavioral change during the lockdown period.

One of the strengths of the study is that it examines pregnancy outcomes in a large, representative group of the country’s population. The researchers took into account that a woman’s age is a potential factor that could mask any potential effect of vaccines on reproduction, so they compensated for age in their analysis.