Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Jul 01, 2022)
Date Submitted: Mar 3, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Menstrual Irregularities Post COVID-19 disease/vaccination in Indian Population: An Observational Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Menstrual changes reported in various studies post-COVID-19 vaccination were diverse, ranging from increased bleeding to the cessation of bleeding. Women’s health has long been neglected in biomedical research. Unfortunately, clinical trials of the current COVID-19 vaccines did not collect menstrual cycle outcomes post-vaccination. The authors conducted the following study on the impact of the disease and vaccination on menstruation.
Objective:
Increased reporting of menstrual disturbances post-vaccination and inadequate inclusion of questions about menstruation in vaccine trials and disease progression studies have been the baseline for conducting this study. We aim to assess the influence of vaccines and COVID-19 disease on menstruation and identify patterns, if any, in cycles post disease/vaccination.
Methods:
A Multicenter observational study was performed using a questionnaire-based survey via an online link. The participants who filled out the survey were predominantly 21-25-year-olds (80%). Participants with prior menstrual irregularities were eliminated from the study.
Results:
The prevalence of unusual menstrual cycles post-vaccination/infection was 21.7%.17.11% experienced changes post-vaccination and 22.8% of the infected individuals reported abnormalities post-COVID-19 disease. A substantial increase in dysmenorrhea was reported(p < 0.001) post-vaccination/infection. An increase in menstrual flow was observed in 14.9% post-vaccination and 23.9% post-infection.
Conclusions:
Menstrual changes post-vaccination were insignificant; however, significant differences in menstruation were reported post-infection. The study strengthens the association between COVID-19 and menstruation and urges the inclusion of menstrual health in disease intervention studies.
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