mRNA vaccines have become the focus of global controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic, with fertility concerns emerging as one of the most complex dilemmas in accepting these vaccines.
This controversy has intensified with the spread of claims on social media and non-scientific platforms linking vaccination to infertility, at a time when many countries have recorded a decline in the number of births.
But this controversy has gradually begun to subside with the emergence of the results of extensive studies based on factual data and accurate statistics, which examine the relationship between receiving the vaccine and fertility rates on a large scale, paving the way for a clearer understanding that is less influenced by rumors.
In this context, a recent Swedish study from Linköping University announced clear results that definitively refute these claims, concluding after analyzing data from tens of thousands of women that COVID vaccines have no relation to declining birth rates.
This study, published in the journal Communications Medicine, confirms what other research in different countries has already indicated, shifting the focus of the discussion from the role of the vaccine to the search for realistic, social and economic explanations for this decline.
In the study, researchers analyzed all women aged 18 to 45 in Jönköping County, totaling nearly 60,000 women (out of a total county population of 369,000). Of these women, 75% had been vaccinated against COVID-19 at least once between 2021 and 2024. The researchers used data on births, vaccinations, abortions, and deaths from health records.
When researchers compared birth and miscarriage rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated women, they found no statistically significant difference between the two groups. This is consistent with several previous studies that found no link between COVID-19 vaccine and fertility.
Thomas Tempka, a professor of social medicine at Linköping University, said: "We conclude that it is unlikely that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was behind the decline in birth rates during the pandemic." He added: "We see no difference in birth rates between those who received the vaccine and those who did not. We also looked at all recorded miscarriages among those who became pregnant, and we found no difference between the two groups there either."
Researchers believe that the decline in birth rates has other, more likely explanations. People who are now in their thirties, the most common age for childbearing, were born in the latter half of the 1990s. This was a period of financial hardship and declining birth rates in Sweden. In other words, the current pool of potential parents is smaller due to the lower birth rates of 30 years ago. Pandemic-related factors, such as health and economic concerns and behavioral changes during lockdowns, may also have contributed to the decline in births.
One of the study's strengths is that it examines pregnancy outcomes in a large, representative group of the country's population. The researchers also took into account that a woman's age is a potential factor that could mask any possible effects of vaccines on fertility, and therefore compensated for age in their analysis.
