Vaccines and sperm counts

Sperm Parameters Before and After COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2781360

https://www.dw.com/en/covid-vaccine-the-unfounded-tale-of-infertility/a-58753946

Reproductive toxicity was not evaluated in the clinical trials

SARS-CoV-2 has been associated with decreases in sperm parameters

We assessed sperm parameters before and after mRNA vaccine administration

Volunteers aged 18 to 50 years, n = 45

Scheduled for mRNA COVID-19 vaccination

Participants provided a semen sample after 2 to 7 days of abstinence
prior to receiving the first vaccine dose

Then median 75 days after the second

Semen analyses semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility, and total motile sperm count

Results

December 17, 2020 to January 12, 2021

Of the 45 men

21 (46.7%) received BNT162b2 (Pfizer)

24 (53.3%) mRNA-1273 (Moderna)

Baseline

Median sperm concentration, 26 million per ml

Total motile sperm count, 36 million

After second vaccine dose

Median sperm concentration, 39 million per ml

Total motile sperm count, 44 million

Semen volume and sperm motility also significantly increased

Eight of the 45 men were oligospermic before the vaccine

Of these 8, 7 men had increased sperm concentration to normozoospermic

Men with oligospermia did not experience further decline

No man became azoospermic after the vaccine

Discussion

No significant decreases in any sperm parameter among small cohort of healthy men

Vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters

Reasons for the increases

Magnitude of change is within normal individual variation

May be influenced by regression to the mean

Increased abstinence time before the second sample.

Study’s time frame encompasses the full life cycle of sperm

https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,21994,420,873.html

Source