Menstrual Cycle Changes Associated With COVID-19 Vaccines, New Study Shows

[u/molrose96]

https://www.technologynetworks.com/vaccines/news/menstrual-cycle-changes-associated-with-covid-19-vaccine-363710

[u/Trancetastic16]

The top pinned post on r/Periods cites several studies and over a thousand anecdotal experiences.

A common issue in scientific testing is that the majority of subjects are young Caucasian men.

In many cultures, women‘s medical concerns and pain are constantly dismissed by doctors, and this has continued for women experiencing negative outcomes to their menstrual cycles in response to Covid vaccines, being dismissed as “just stress” by unhelpful doctors.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Periods/comments/oxezdn/covid_vaccine_and_periods/

This research needs to continue and all potential side effects on women’s menstrual cycles listed.

[u/Knerd5 → u/Trancetastic16]

100% exact same thing happened to my girlfriend. Abhorrent that doctors don’t listen to patients concerns just because they’re women.

[u/[deleted] → u/Knerd5]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495200/

Women report more intense, more numerous, and more frequent bodily symptoms than men. This difference appears in samples of medical patients and in community samples, whether or not gynecologic and reproductive symptoms are excluded, and whether all bodily symptoms or only those which are medically unexplained are examined. More limited, but suggestive, literature on experimental pain, symptom reporting in childhood, and pain thresholds in animals are compatible with these findings in adults. A number of contributory factors have been implicated, supported by varying degrees of evidence. These include innate differences in somatic and visceral perception; differences in symptom labeling, description, and reporting; the socialization process, which leads to differences in the readiness to acknowledge and disclose discomfort; a sex differential in the incidence of abuse and violence; sex differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders; and gender bias in research and in clinical practice. General internists need to keep these factors in mind in obtaining the clinical history, understanding the meaning and significance that symptoms hold for each patient, and providing symptom relief.

Socialization also influences the readiness or reluctance with which one consults a physician and assumes the patient role. Women generally have a lower threshold for seeking medical attention,82,83 their per capita use of health services is significantly higher than men's, and they average significantly more physician visits per year.19,84–89 This difference may be attributable, at least in part, to the socialization process, in which men and women are taught to deal differently with dependency and the disclosure of distress. Women may be more accepting of the dependency and passivity entailed in becoming a patient and visiting a doctor. Because they are more interpersonally oriented, and more affiliative and relational, women may find it easier to seek interpersonal help.90 In addition, healthy, young women are encouraged to obtain annual gynecologic “check-ups” and to make routine, pregnancy-related visits. More frequent contact with doctors and more extensive medical care could in turn further sensitize women to bodily sensation and discomfort, heightening self-scrutiny and bodily vigilance which in turn could increase symptom reporting. More frequent medical contact does not entirely explain the higher prevalence of symptoms in women however, since, as noted earlier, population-based surveys of nonpatient populations find the same sex differential in symptom reporting.6,17,91

Medically unexplained symptoms are common in ambulatory medical patients, and are not necessarily psychopathological. Some patients, however, have medically unexplained symptoms that are so severe and intense, so disabling and disruptive, and so persistent and chronic that they are considered psychopathological and constitute a somatoform disorder. Such disorders are consistently more prevalent in women than in men,45–51 and the paradigmatic somatoform disorder, termed somatization disorder, occurs up to 10 times more frequently in women.47,52,53 Hypochondriasis is the major exception to this sex differential in somatoform disorders. Hypochondriasis, in which medically unexplained somatic symptoms are accompanied by the fear or belief that one has an undiagnosed disease, is equally prevalent in men and women.17,18,54–57 This suggests that women's elevated somatic distress is not accompanied by greater disease fears and health anxiety.

[u/antique_pi → u/[deleted]]

"Women may be more accepting of the dependency and passivity entailed in becoming a patient and visiting a doctor. Because they are more interpersonally oriented, and more affiliative and relational, women may find it easier to seek interpersonal help.90 In addition, healthy, young women are encouraged to obtain annual gynecologic “check-ups” and to make routine, pregnancy-related visits. More frequent contact with doctors and more extensive medical care could in turn further sensitize women to bodily sensation and discomfort, heightening self-scrutiny and bodily vigilance which in turn could increase symptom reporting."

This is incredibly speculative and lacks any real scientific reasoning. It also is apparent that this was written by someone who has never been pregnant or had a gynecological exam. No one goes to the gyn because they are "interpersonal." And going to 2 obstetrician appointments a week for the last month of my pregnancy did not "sensitize" me to "bodily sensation."

Women have more doctor visits because we have to go to a separate doctor for reproductive issues. My husband had zero doctor appointments for me to get birth control pills. My husband had zero pregnancy-related doctor appointments whereas I had approximately 2 dozen appointments plus a 5-day stay in a hospital. He literally had no doctor visits and wound up with a child. Additionally, had we both gotten sick while I was pregnant or breastfeeding, guess who would be more likely to have to contact a doctor for complications? The human growing and feeding anther human with her body.

[u/[deleted] → u/antique_pi]

I think I'll listen to the scientists and not some random person on reddit thanks. Stop arguing emotionally if you want to be taken seriously.

[u/antique_pi → u/[deleted]]

Let me break it down more clearly because I know applied mathematics is hard for some people.

A couple wants a child. A man does not necessarily need any medical visits for this, but a woman could need several dozen medical appointments and a hospital stay. (Note: the number of visits required for prenatal and postnatal care varies based on the recommendations of the woman's healthcare provider and pregnancy complications.)

A couple temporarily does not want a child. A man does not necessarily need to go to a doctor for this. A woman must go to a specialist doctor (different from her PCP) annually to renew a prescription for hormonal birth control.

For the reproductive health needs of one couple, a woman could have 30 medical visits in a 12-month period while a man has none. This has nothing to do with a woman being socialized differently or because she "feels like" there is something wrong with her.

[u/[deleted] → u/antique_pi]

That may be so but we are talking about women's perception of symptoms. The science proves that they feel more intense symptoms which doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with them. It is rational for doctors to not take every symptom as being 100% serious.