<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 does not make women more likely to seek medical attention for menstrual problems, the largest study conducted on the subject said on Thursday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since Covid vaccination campaigns began nearly two and a half years ago, some women have reported changes in their menstrual cycle after getting the mRNA shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This led to the European Union's drug watchdog recommending that heavy periods be listed as a possible side effect of the vaccines.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has also been greatly exaggerated by anti-vaccine campaigners seeking to spread misinformation online about the supposed dangers of getting inoculated, according to experts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new study looked at patient data from Sweden's health registry which included nearly three million women, around 40 percent of the country's female population.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rickard Ljung, a professor at the Swedish Medical Products Agency and lead author of the new study, told AFP that it was "by far" the largest carried out on the issue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was also the first to use independent data on whether women contacted healthcare professionals over their menstrual problems, he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Previous research has used self-reported data -- including information from apps that track periods -- to indicate that some women have changes in their menstrual cycle after getting vaccinated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What we show is that it does not seem that these (potential) disturbances are so severe that they have led to the women seeking medical attention," Ljung said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The researchers acknowledged that self-reported data could include menstrual problems which were not quite bad enough for patients to seek help but were still "sufficiently disturbing".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They also pointed out that self-reported data can be "stimulated by media attention".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The study looked at first, second and third doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines in Swedish women aged 12-74 from December 2020 to February 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For women who had not yet been through menopause, there was no link between vaccination and menstrual disturbances once variables had been adjusted for, the study said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For post-menopausal women, there was a slight increase in seeking medical attention for menstrual problems after the third dose of Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, the study said the link between the two factors was "weak and inconsistent".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Overall, the study, published in the BMJ journal, said its "findings do not provide substantial support for a causal association" between Covid vaccines and seeking medical attention for menstrual or bleeding disorders. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>