Get Your COVID-19 Vaccine Before IVF Treatment

Studies show that vaccines significantly reduce complications related to COVID-19 during pregnancy. Near East University Hospital Gynecology and Obstetrics Department Head and Near East University IVF Center specialist Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmet Gün recommends patients to have their vaccinations before IVF treatment.

Pregnant women are among the most important risk groups of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. Studies show that the need for intensive care, the need for a ventilator, and mortality rates are higher in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. It is also stated that COVID-19 infection in the early stages of pregnancy causes an increase in undesirable outcomes such as pregnancy poisoning, premature or stillbirth. In the USA, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control announces pregnancy as a risk factor among the important diseases associated with COVID-19.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmet Gün: “COVID-19 vaccines do not harm pregnancy.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency use permission to 3 types of vaccines for protection from COVID-19. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which are messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines created with the new technology, are administered as two doses, 21 and 28 days apart, respectively, while Johnson & Johnson, the adenovirus-vector vaccine, is administered as a single dose. Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmet Gün says, “Studies show that these vaccines do not harm the egg, sperm and embryo during IVF treatment and the baby during pregnancy.”

Those vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have a 94-95 percent lower risk of contracting COVID-19, while similarly, the risk of contracting infection after Johnson & Johnson vaccine is reduced by 66 percent. In addition, publications on scientific research also state that these vaccines do not have any negative effects on reproduction.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmet Gün states that as of August 30, 2021, the number of registered pregnant women in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System established by the CDC and FDA has reached 155,914, and no vaccine-related safety concerns have been observed among the registered people to date. In the light of all these data, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine recommends that in vitro fertilization treatments be performed after the end of the vaccination program.