COVID-19 vaccine has no effect on male fertility, sperm count: Study

As contrary to the unsubstantiated claims circulating on social media, scientists at the University of Miami have found that the COVID-19 vaccine does not harm male fertility, or reduce the sperm count in healthy young males. According to a study published June 17, in the scientific journal JAMA, the researchers accumulated samples from men aged 18 to 50 in an in-vitro fertilization center between February and March post-vaccination in Israel. They analyzed data of the 43 vaccinated male patients and compared it with the data prior to when these males were jabbed with two mRNA vaccines, BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna). It was found that the men reported no underlying fertility issues. 

The study excluded males with COVID-19 symptoms or those that turned back a positive diagnosis within 90 days. The participants were provided a semen sample after 2 to 7 days of abstinence, prior to receiving the first vaccine dose and approximately 70 days after the second. The Semen analyses were performed by trained andrologists as per the World Health Organization guidelines and it included semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and total motile sperm count (TMSC).

[Credit: JAMA]

[Credit: JAMA]

Men with oligospermia or low sperm count below 15 million sperm per milliliter of semen were also included in the analysis.  Any magnitude of change noticed was within normal individual variation, and additionally, any increase detected was due to the increased abstinence time before the second sample. It was found that the men with oligospermia did not experience further decline.

“The sperm parameters before and after 2 doses of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, there were no significant decreases in any sperm parameter among this small cohort of healthy men. Because the vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, it is unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters,” the scientists concluded in the study. 

US CDC debunks myth 

Earlier the US CDC, similarly, explored the effect of the BNT162b2 or the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine on semen analysis among 75 fertile men. “Unfounded claims in the popular media linked a possible correlation between the COVID-19 vaccine and potential male infertility,” the CDC said in its clinical trials results. Therefore, the investigators explored the effect of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine on semen in males between 18 to 45 years. Those recruited supplied a single sperm sample 1-2 months following the second dose of the vaccination. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) enrolled guidance that there is no evidence that the vaccines cause fertility problems.