[HN Gopher] Trends in menstrual bleeding changes after SARS-CoV-...
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       Trends in menstrual bleeding changes after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 90 points
       Date   : 2022-07-17 19:37 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.science.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
        
       | alliao wrote:
       | this is a good start
        
       | jjgreen wrote:
        
         | lostlogin wrote:
         | It does define the term later, and includes a breakdown.
         | 
         | 'e.g., those on menstrual suppression therapies or
         | postmenopausal people'
         | 
         | 'This sample included 35,572 (90.9%) woman-only identifying and
         | 3557 (9.1%) gender-diverse respondents'
        
         | baremetal wrote:
         | > formerly menstruating people
         | 
         | is that referring to post menopausal women?
        
           | mbg721 wrote:
        
           | jimmygrapes wrote:
        
           | matthewmacleod wrote:
           | Among others, but the thing I'd guess the parent was
           | referring to is a specific kind of culture warrior who loses
           | their absolute shit when anybody uses the term "people" in
           | relation to any topic that primarily involves women; some
           | trans men may menstruate or have done so in the past, for
           | example, so there is a tendency in the field to avoid
           | gendered terms unless it's necessary.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | " _Please don 't pick the most provocative thing in an article
         | or post to complain about in the thread. Find something
         | interesting to respond to instead._"
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
       | SoftTalker wrote:
       | "Vaccine trial protocols do not typically monitor for major
       | adverse events for more than 7 days"
       | 
       | I am stunned by this. Seven days? Is there really no reason to
       | think that a vaccine candidate might have adverse effects more
       | than a week later?
        
         | ellisv wrote:
         | Given that the vaccine itself is out of your system within a
         | few days, and if effective begin triggering an immune response,
         | I don't think there's not much reason to monitor for safety
         | beyond that point.
        
           | iratewizard wrote:
           | Thalidomide is out of your system by your first grandchild.
        
         | codefreeordie wrote:
         | If you studied for more than seven days, you might find
         | problems preventing your mass rollout, and then where would you
         | be
        
         | PKop wrote:
         | Of course there is reason to think that. So what are we left
         | with? These organizations do not have your best interest in
         | mind. Why is that so hard to believe?
         | 
         | If they tested for longer, they'd be less likely to sell their
         | products. Who is going to stop them? Everyone criticizing
         | vaccines and those peddling them is a pariah in popular culture
         | and among elite institutional leadership in US. This is what
         | happens, they have free reign to pull the wool over your eyes.
         | 
         | Do you think because you "believe the science", you or anyone
         | else is immune to propaganda?
        
           | Nextgrid wrote:
           | I find this hard to believe. It's beneficial for everyone
           | including manufacturers for their products to be proven safe.
           | 
           | If we assume manufacturers are intentionally malicious, what
           | prevents them from outright submitting a dummy saline shot
           | for testing instead of the real thing, guaranteeing
           | absolutely zero side-effects?
        
       | dukeofdoom wrote:
       | The likely alternative is the people making the decisions knew it
       | would harm or even kill some people, and still went ahead with
       | it. And just set up a circle of deniability, and legal immunity
       | in the event of any future litigation. This includes pfizer.
       | 
       | In Ontario the politicians said they are following the advice of
       | chief medical officer in implementing the lockdowns. But there's
       | a moment of dark political satire, when on hot mic one of the
       | chief medical officers before a press conference say's "I just
       | read what they tell me to".
       | 
       | https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-health-official-responds-...
       | 
       | "The trolley problem is a series of thought experiments in ethics
       | and psychology, involving stylized ethical dilemmas of whether to
       | sacrifice one person to save a larger number. The series usually
       | begins with a scenario in which a runaway tram or trolley is on
       | course to collide with and kill a number of people (traditionally
       | five) down the track, but a driver or bystander can intervene and
       | divert the vehicle to kill just one person on a different track."
       | -Wikipedia
        
       | steve76 wrote:
        
       | jl6 wrote:
       | > What else should I know about this research?
       | 
       | > The nature of this survey means that we cannot compare the
       | incidence of different experiences here with the general
       | population (meaning, 40% of this sample having an experience does
       | not mean that is the rate of that experience out in the world).
       | The associations described here are not causal but provide
       | evidence to better study these trends further. We emphasize that
       | menstrual bleeding changes of this nature are generally not
       | indicative of changes to fertility.
        
       | moistly wrote:
       | Hmmm. Is the vaccine, which produces a spike protein for a short
       | time that your body then reacts against, more or less dangerous
       | than an active virus covered in all sorts of wonderful cell-
       | hijacking mechanisms, replicating by the bajillions, and causing
       | micro clots and inflammation all over one's sensitive internal
       | organs?
       | 
       | A real stumper of a question!
       | 
       | I bet it's the virus that has killed umpteen millions of people,
       | not the vaccine that's been administered several billion times
       | without causing outrageous levels of death or ill health. Surely!
       | 
       | [rolls eyes]
        
       | in_cahoots wrote:
       | As someone who was trying to conceive while the vaccine rolled
       | out, this isn't surprising. People were regularly reporting basal
       | temperature spikes, delayed ovulation, and delayed periods. This
       | is a community that is extremely data-oriented, since with the
       | right measurements you're able to predict your fertile (or non-
       | fertile) window.
       | 
       | I was disappointed to see how little research there was into
       | menstruation at the time. We were told that the vaccine was
       | perfectly safe, and even questioning the vaccine made you 'anti-
       | vax.' Now over a full year later the scientific community is
       | confirming what random message boards have been saying all along.
       | It may be safe, but nobody really cared to look at the impact on
       | menstruation or pregnancy beyond confirming that the rate of
       | miscarriage is unchanged.
        
         | bsaul wrote:
         | The problem now is that so many people, in so many fields,
         | relayed that "everything's safe, if you disagree or dare
         | casting doubts you're an a ti-science sociopath", that it's
         | going to be super super hard for them to admit they were wrong.
        
           | peyton wrote:
           | I think a similar thing happened with the 1949 Nobel Prize in
           | Physiology/Medicine. It remains unvacated.
        
           | nerdponx wrote:
           | Ironically the anti-science rhetoric was first pushed as
           | propaganda to allow Trump & co. to dodge responsibility for
           | mishandling the pandemic.
        
         | skuhn wrote:
         | This study began in April 2021 and the paper was published in
         | July 2022.
         | 
         | Presuming that the amount of time spent was necessary to
         | thoroughly gather, review and document the findings, what would
         | you have wanted done differently?
        
           | gjsman-1000 wrote:
           | Perhaps we wouldn't have had the news, pretending that there
           | was no effect, and if there was, correlation is not
           | causation, and then saying as little as 5 months ago that
           | there may be an effect but that any effects on menstruation
           | only lasted one day at the most [1]. Just be honest -
           | dishonesty like this breeds anti-vaxxers.
           | 
           | [1] https://youtu.be/TWk2Z6mzZUU?t=60 (Good Morning America
           | and ABC News talking about menstruation side effects 5 months
           | ago and basically saying the opposite of this study)
        
           | PKop wrote:
           | Not taken the vax if your health and age profile didn't merit
           | it, given the unknown unknowns and lack of long term testing,
           | which many people highlighted endlessly for the past year or
           | so.
           | 
           | Public concessions exactly to your point that long term
           | testing _takes time_ , and assertions to the contrary that
           | tere are no risks of x, y, z were blatant sophistry intended
           | to silence legitimate criticism. These vaccines were mandated
           | at threat of loss of careers for crying out loud...people are
           | still getting fired for not taking them long after covid is
           | any sort threat whatsoever or where there can be plausible
           | deniability about claims the vaccines actually prevent
           | contracting covid etc.
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29003019
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29004097
           | 
           | (lot of "trust the experts", "you sound like one of the
           | ignorant rubes" type of replies at those links, devoid of any
           | sort of critical thinking, blindly trusting authorities
           | without any acknowledgement to potential downsides
           | outweighing limited upside of vax for many cohorts)
        
             | shitpostbot wrote:
        
             | mcronce wrote:
             | > long after covid is any sort threat whatsoever
             | 
             | People dying and people with - and still getting- long
             | COVID would probably disagree with that statement.
        
               | busymom0 wrote:
               | 1. Covid vax does not prevent long covid:
               | 
               | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/25/long-
               | covid-...
               | 
               | 2. Healthy young people under 50 or even 60 were not
               | dying or getting hospitalized. Whatever risk they want to
               | take, they should be able to take it without mandates.
               | Since the vax does not prevent infection or transmission,
               | one is only taking individual risk and not affecting
               | others.
        
               | jamroom wrote:
               | Specific to the US which states had vaccine mandates?
        
               | busymom0 wrote:
               | I live in Canada. Here, unvaxxed weren't even allowed to
               | air travel domestically. Nor did they recognize a
               | negative PCR test or past infection natural immunity.
               | 
               | Compassionate grounds such as taking care of sick family
               | member, funeral etc were also not exempted.
               | 
               | Everyone who were COVID+ despite being vaxxed were
               | allowed to fly, go to gym, restaurant etc. Meanwhile, an
               | unvaxxed person wasn't allowed to do the same even if
               | they could show a negative PCR test.
        
               | fernandotakai wrote:
               | i took all three shots and got covid about two weeks ago.
               | it was HARSH. no sense of smell, no sense of taste, 3
               | days with high-ish fever (39C), the body ache was crazy
               | bad and worse of all: brain fog. i managed to avoid going
               | to the hospital, but barely.
               | 
               | and that's with 3 shots. i'm almost sure i would be in an
               | ICU if i didn't get any shots.
        
               | blumomo wrote:
               | > and that's with 3 shots. i'm almost sure i would be in
               | an ICU if i didn't get any shots.
               | 
               | How could we prove this hypothesis?
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | It's an anecdote, not a hypothesis.
        
               | PKop wrote:
               | Here again a blatant lack of clarity around the issue.
               | Who are dying and at what rate? What are their
               | comorbidities? What is the vax status of those that are
               | dying, presumably many have taken the vaccine anyways
               | yes?
               | 
               | But you do you, is the point. I'm perfectly fine with my
               | choice of not taking it: I'm not overweight, I lift
               | weights and exercise regularly, have low bodyfat percent,
               | I get plenty of sunlight for Vitamin D and immune
               | support. I _do not need_ the vaccine.
               | 
               | This mentality of extreme safetyism applied
               | indiscriminately even now is insane. Are you going to
               | take covid boosters for the rest of your life? The
               | disease is going to be continually weakened and become
               | just another coronavirus. The rest of us will move on
               | with our lives. Quite simply, I'm not worried about Covid
               | at all. Can you say the same about the long term
               | prospects of endless boosters on your body? I sure
               | couldn't.
               | 
               | Tell me now how 100% confident you are there are no side
               | effects because the propaganda experts and drug companies
               | told you so, so we can come back to it in 6 months when
               | more side effects start being discovered and posted here
               | on HN...
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29003555
        
               | ccn0p wrote:
               | Yes and this insanity is literally keeping large numbers
               | of people from engaging in parts of society. Some
               | conferences, meetups, and events still require attendees
               | to be fully vaccinated with no testing option. I was
               | unable to attend an event just last week for this reason.
               | It's stunning.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > Who are dying and at what rate?
               | 
               | Mostly the very old, at this point; though I'm in my 40s
               | where the rate starts to tick up. But beyond that,
               | there's the risk of long term morbidity. My niece was
               | early 20's, active, in good health, with no comorbidities
               | and is now pseudo-disabled. The vaccine only removes
               | about 30% of the risk of this type of outcome, but still
               | that alone is worth it.
               | 
               | > What is the vax status of those that are dying,
               | presumably many have taken the vaccine anyways yes?
               | 
               | Looks like people who have taken the vaccine have about
               | 6-10% of the risk of death of those who haven't,
               | controlling for comorbidities.
               | 
               | > Are you going to take covid boosters for the rest of
               | your life?
               | 
               | A lot of us might-- though I've got a fair bit of hope
               | that we come up with something better in the next couple
               | of years. I will do my best to avoid infection in the
               | meantime.
               | 
               | > The disease is going to be continually weakened and
               | become just another coronavirus.
               | 
               | Viral selection is complicated. Yes, in the very long
               | term, many viruses end up becoming less virulent, but
               | others go in the other direction.
               | 
               | > Can you say the same about the long term prospects of
               | endless boosters on your body? I sure couldn't.
               | 
               | I'm pretty dang confident that I can bound the risk from
               | the vaccine to be much lower than the risk from COVID
               | infection.
        
               | jmcgough wrote:
               | > But you do you, is the point
               | 
               | I've never understood this type of selfishness. If you
               | get sick you will, on average, infect another 2-3 people.
               | It's not just about you.
        
               | busymom0 wrote:
               | 1. Covid shots do not prevent infection or transmission.
               | 
               | 2. Since Delta, both vaxxed and unvaxxed cases have the
               | same viral load.
               | 
               | 3. Since December at least, boosted and vaxxed have
               | higher RATE per 100k of covid infections.
               | 
               | So whatever benefit one gets is individual benefit only
               | and not getting others sick in any different way as the
               | vaxxed folks do.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > 1. Covid shots do not prevent infection or
               | transmission.
               | 
               | It does look like there's about a 20-30% reduction of
               | infection from random surveys of the population and from
               | nucleocapsid seroprevalence assays; transmission-once-
               | infected is very difficult to measure, but it would be
               | surprising if it did not have some effect.
               | 
               | > 2. Since Delta, both vaxxed and unvaxxed cases have the
               | same viral load.
               | 
               | There's a key fallacy here: we're looking at a population
               | of cases detected by similar means and then found that
               | they have similar viral loads. Not too surprising of a
               | finding (survivorship bias, basically).
               | 
               | There's some data indicating that viral copy assays are
               | not good proxies for finding true infectious shedding --
               | and that vaccinated individuals can be much better in
               | this regard despite having higher loads. e.g.
               | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01816-0
               | 
               | > 3. Since December at least, boosted and vaxxed have
               | higher RATE per 100k of covid infections.
               | 
               | This is absolutely and completely untrue. There's been a
               | couple of times where the vaxxed have been higher in the
               | data series, but the overwhelming trend in the data has
               | been the opposite. e.g. right now in Santa Clara County,
               | where I am, the unvaccinated case rate is approximately
               | 268 per 100,000 per week; the fully vaccinated case rate
               | is about 46 per 100,000.
               | 
               | Of course, people who elect vaccination don't behave
               | exactly the same as those who don't... and so many people
               | in S.C.C. are vaccinated that the exact number of
               | unvaccinated has some uncertainty (but it's not off by a
               | factor of 5).
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | roenxi wrote:
               | > It does look like there's about a 20-30% reduction of
               | infection from random surveys of the population and from
               | nucleocapsid seroprevalence assays; transmission-once-
               | infected is very difficult to measure, but it would be
               | surprising if it did not have some effect.
               | 
               | You are responding to a practical concern with a
               | theoretical counter. But practically speaking the vaccine
               | doesn't change the picture at all. The situation pre-
               | vaccine was COVID was going to spread like wildfire after
               | any lockdown attempt ended and everyone was going to be
               | exposed to it. The situation post-vaccine, even with that
               | reduction in infection rates, was the same.
               | 
               | Ditto speed, since this is an exponential process that
               | reduction won't have an especially material effect on
               | when everyone gets COVID.
               | 
               | We ran a natural experiment on this in Australia [0] -
               | having a highly vaccinated population didn't appear to
               | have any impact at all on COVID transmission rate or
               | reach in who gets infected. The numbers are not
               | convincing that the vaccine did anything for
               | transmissions. The effect of personal protection seems to
               | explain all the benefits of the vaccine.
               | 
               | [0] https://chrisbillington.net/COVID_NSW.html
        
               | busymom0 wrote:
               | 1. That was only true before Delta. When Delta came, the
               | viral load became the same between vaxxed and unvaxxed
               | folks and combined with waning immunity of 3-6 months,
               | most people were basically "unvaxxed" with respect to
               | transmission by fall. Omicron took it even further where
               | since December, in Ontario, boosted and vaxxed folks have
               | had higher rate per 100k of covid infections.
               | 
               | https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS147
               | 3-3...
               | 
               | 3. It is true and the government admits that boosted and
               | vaxxed have higher rates. Ontario source:
               | 
               | https://web.archive.org/web/20220228051509/http://covid-1
               | 9.o...
               | 
               | https://web.archive.org/web/20220331081902/http://covid-1
               | 9.o...
               | 
               | Here's how it looks:
               | 
               | https://imgur.com/a/H4ErmyC
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > 1. That was only true before Delta.
               | 
               | Posting a disputed study that I criticized to try and
               | refute me, when I posted important 2022 followup data to
               | viral shedding based on actual infectivity rather than
               | just RNA copies indicates you either didn't read my
               | comment or didn't understand it.
               | 
               | > 3. It is true and the government admits that boosted
               | and vaxxed have higher rates. Ontario source:
               | 
               | I just knew you were going to point to the Ontario data
               | from Mar-Apr. This is why I said in a couple places they
               | popped above for a couple data points. Are you
               | deliberately being obtuse?
               | 
               | Compare to basically any other data series from any other
               | time; e.g. my locale:
               | 
               | https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-case-rates-
               | vaccination-...
        
               | busymom0 wrote:
               | How's that study disputed?
               | 
               | That study is not alone either. NEJM has similar studies
               | too.
               | 
               | Your link seems to be an outlier. Denmark, UK, Scotland,
               | and other provinces in Canada also show the same higher
               | rates in boosted and fully vaxxed than unvaxxed.
               | Walgreens data for US also shows this. Look at page 3 of:
               | 
               | https://www.walgreens.com/businesssolutions/covid-19-inde
               | x.j...
               | 
               | Canadian government seroprevalence data also shows that
               | between December 2021 and May 2022, there were at least
               | 17.5 million infections. This is in a population of 38
               | million. This was despite extremely high vax rates.
               | 
               | So, how exactly did the vaccine prevent infection and
               | transmission? Vaxxed folks were allowed to enjoy services
               | with a false sense of security and spread Covid to others
               | while unvaxxed folks were denied from society.
               | 
               | Please don't resolve to ad hominem attacks on hacker
               | news.
        
               | StillBored wrote:
               | While I sorta tend to agree with you, this is a _RESULT_
               | of people refusing to take the vaccines (or do full
               | lockdowns/wear masks/etc). Like the original SARs strains
               | it should have been possible to eradicate through strong
               | public health measures, one of which was vaccination.
               | 
               | So, we can shrug this one off, because in the end it
               | _only_ kills a percent or so of people, overwhelmingly
               | already infirm or elderly.
               | 
               | We may not be so lucky the next time, and this attitude
               | _will_ get us in trouble when that happens.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | China literally locked down Shanghai and millions of
               | people in their homes, had police everywhere monitoring,
               | had almost no exceptions other than for the police, and
               | literally boarded people in their homes, engaged every
               | spying mechanism they had, did mandatory testing, _for
               | more than six weeks_ , and it did not stop COVID - but it
               | is increasingly clear it only delayed it from spreading
               | inevitably. Even WIRED, pro-vaccine, has written articles
               | about all the people who died from the lockdown and
               | inability to get medical care due to the restrictions. It
               | was the most full, most strict lockdown physically
               | possible and it still _did not work_ and China is looking
               | at needing to repeat it.
        
               | StillBored wrote:
               | After it already went endemic, and the transmissiblity
               | went through the roof.
               | 
               | Not sure why that is hard to understand. If this virus
               | killed 95% of people would you be arguing against
               | lockdowns?
               | 
               | I think most people can agree that its one of those to
               | little to late situations in china and they need to
               | reconsider at this point, but that doesn't make what they
               | are trying to do wrong.
        
               | JohnTHaller wrote:
               | My under 40 triathlete friend with no comorbidities who
               | wound up in the ICU for a month and needed two surgeries
               | to drain his lungs would beg to differ. Or my buddy down
               | the block under 40 with no cormorbities who is now on
               | beta blockers for long term Covid. As would folks like my
               | Dad who the vaccine and first booster didn't work on due
               | to his suppressed immune system from receiving my kidney.
        
               | PKop wrote:
               | Careful with extreme endurance exercise, it can be immuno
               | suppressive [0]
               | 
               | I would advise a balance between weightlifting, moderate
               | cardio, lots of sunlight exposure for Vitamin D and
               | testosterone support, and a balanced diet.
               | 
               | And yes there are instances of young, non co-morbid
               | people dying from covid. Statistically, not that many, so
               | I'm not worried about it.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3475230/
        
               | nradov wrote:
               | With billions of cases around the world there will always
               | be some outliers, but those are irrelevant for decision
               | making. What does the data show?
        
               | anonymouse008 wrote:
               | Lance Armstrong had advanced testicular cancer while
               | competing and placing 6th in the Olympics in 1996.
               | 
               | Comorbidities are tricky - and triathletes are a weird
               | body type to build and maintain.
        
               | PKop wrote:
               | Yes extreme endurance can be immuno suppressive.
        
               | woodruffw wrote:
               | This kind of skepticism goes both ways: you could get
               | COVID next week and discover that you have a latent
               | comorbidity that otherwise would never have affected you.
               | 
               | From a public health perspective, universal (or near-
               | universal) vaccination is an unequivocal good. Given _the
               | sum_ of what we know about both COVID and any side
               | effects of vaccination, this remains the case.
        
           | oldgradstudent wrote:
           | These side effects are not rare at all. These side effects
           | should have been caught in the original vaccine trials.
           | 
           | The fact that it comes out now tells you something went very
           | wrong in the trials. In a functioning science, a careful
           | postmortem of the vaccine trials would be in order.
        
             | skuhn wrote:
             | Perhaps you already know, but initial vaccine trials are
             | not performed against menstruation age (aka likely to
             | become pregnant) women. It is considered medically
             | unethical to do so. That is an obvious double edged sword:
             | 
             | 1. It prevents birth defects from occurring with trial
             | participants, because this product has not yet been fully
             | studied and approved.
             | 
             | 2. It reduces the initial knowledge of any female-specific
             | issues with the product, and particularly limits knowledge
             | around pregnancy issues.
             | 
             | https://www.path.org/articles/why-are-pregnant-people-
             | left-o...
        
               | oldgradstudent wrote:
               | This also affected postmenopausal women who were included
               | in the trials. To quote the paper: "66% of postmenopausal
               | people reported breakthrough bleeding."
               | 
               | Then of course, menstruation age and pregnant women
               | should not be told the vaccine is safe for them, as it
               | was never tested on them. Similar to other
               | pharmaceuticals, it should only be recommend after very
               | careful consideration.
               | 
               | For example, the Tick-Borne Encephalitis Vaccine has a
               | track record of decades, but still, the recommendation in
               | pregnancy is [1] "The vaccine appears to be safe during
               | pregnancy, but because of insufficient data the vaccine
               | is only recommended during pregnancy and breastfeeding
               | when it is considered urgent to achieve protection
               | against TBE infection and after careful consideration of
               | risks versus benefits."
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-
               | borne_encephalitis_vaccin...
        
               | swimfar wrote:
               | That link says trials typically exclude pregnant woman,
               | not all woman who menstruate.
        
           | Trumpi wrote:
           | > what would you have wanted done differently?
           | 
           | When these problems were first reported, resolve to stick
           | with the principle of informed consent rather than impose
           | mandates.
        
         | greenthrow wrote:
         | Quick Googling shows that the cold and flu can impact
         | ovulation. So it is not a surprise that Covid or its vaccines
         | can as well, since it often presents as more severe.
         | 
         | It was still the correct choice of action for you to get the
         | vaccine and potentially delay conception. It is safer for you
         | and the baby if you are vaccinated.
         | 
         | This study is just providing confirmation to something that all
         | medical professionals likely assumed is true, based on the
         | common knowledge that the flu and cold and other illnesses can
         | also affect fertility.
        
           | peyton wrote:
           | > correct choice of action
           | 
           | Correct? To... delay conception? According to... you?
           | 
           | I am not comfortable leaving decisions like that to others.
        
             | Nextgrid wrote:
             | There's an argument for forcing this decision if it affects
             | others.
             | 
             | The prevailing theory, at least at the time, was that
             | widespread vaccination would reduce spread and protect
             | everyone including the unvaccinated.
             | 
             | In that case, it could make sense to force people to delay
             | if it means everyone ends up better off overall.
        
         | throwaway406382 wrote:
         | From a throwaway because of the potential backlash...This paper
         | is pure bull. They did a survey of 30k people and asked them
         | about their experience and then said that the vaccine didn't
         | cause anything and that we should trust our institutions. They
         | didn't even have a control (unvaccinated) group! Just 30k
         | vaccinated folks who responded to a survey about whether they
         | perceived more/less bleeding, and such.
         | 
         | I'm actually working (as a computational mathematician) with an
         | OBGYN and a few other doctors on a paper on this topic right
         | now. We're using real data and a control and doing real
         | Bayesian stats and all of that. But the tragic thing is, we
         | don't need to get fancy. There's so much signal that the
         | vaccine is bad for women's reproductive health that it really
         | is obvious. I hope we can find an uncaptured journal to get it
         | published in.
         | 
         | This paper is pure propaganda that's toeing the line about
         | vaccine safety. It's idea laundering so they can later point to
         | an article in "Science" showing that it's safe.
         | 
         | I'm so sad that Science (the journal) as fallen so far and is
         | so captured.
        
           | manwe150 wrote:
           | How bad is it for health? This paper also notes that the
           | virus itself is of great concern foremost, so any conclusion
           | must be in comparison to the alternative (aka the control
           | group): "Studies and anecdotal reports are already
           | demonstrating that menstrual function may be disrupted long
           | term [be the virus], particularly in those with long COVID
           | (32-35)"
           | 
           | It seems so many commenters here miss that sentence, and live
           | in a mental world where viruses are mostly benign but
           | healthcare is mostly deadly.
           | 
           | Therefore, a statistical control group for such a trial as
           | you describe doing is not an unvaccinated cohort for the same
           | time period, but rather for infinite time. Thus your results
           | will require substantial adjustment for the eventual rates of
           | encountering COVID (and the estimated rates of equivalent
           | adverse effects), since your trial will presumably be of
           | finite duration.
        
           | jbd28 wrote:
           | Pretty strong words and claims while providing no data to
           | refute the paper
        
           | fferen wrote:
           | Note that this is Science Advances, a much less prestigious
           | journal than Science proper.
        
           | belter wrote:
           | "Ten thousand report menstrual issues after having corona
           | vaccine" (October 2021)
           | 
           | https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/10/ten-thousand-report-
           | me...
           | 
           | [Dutch Reference]: https://www.lareb.nl/news/veel-meldingen-
           | menstruatiestoornis...
        
         | poorbutdebtfree wrote:
         | There were several posters on HN pointing out menstrual cycles
         | anecdotes last year and they were largely down voted and
         | possibly shadowbanned. You don't even need censors anymore when
         | the majority decides what is acceptable thought.
        
         | airza wrote:
         | The problem is that _most_ vaccines affect menstruation; for
         | obvious reasons the uterus is a hotbed of immune activity in
         | the human body.
        
           | bamboozled wrote:
           | I think the warning on the packet should've said that?
        
         | abathur wrote:
         | I think (at least) three big problems intersect here:
         | 
         | 1. the sci/med establishment seems to have some ongoing ~bias
         | issues that I don't fully understand when it comes to listening
         | to and taking lay people seriously (especially women)
         | 
         | 2. it's hard to do complex synthesis of relative risks and
         | rewards across different studies measuring different things for
         | different reasons
         | 
         | 3. we've had a lot of uninformed and malicious actors splashing
         | about in the information ecosystem
         | 
         | It's a two-way street. Researchers and public health officials
         | both need to take women seriously _and_ they need to have faith
         | that they can research or discuss details like this frankly
         | through their normal semi-public publication channels without
         | being afraid that people who don 't grok or don't care about
         | the nuance of their research will use it as an info-cudgel to
         | induce FUD that ruins lives.
         | 
         | To toss in the requisite anecdata, my sister got pregnant this
         | past fall. She was due for a booster but FUD about it hurting
         | the baby swayed her mind. She got omicron in late December,
         | post-covid complications nearly took her and the baby in late
         | February, and she had to live in the hospital until she
         | delivered in June.
        
           | gjsman-1000 wrote:
           | > To toss in the requisite anecdata, my sister got pregnant
           | this past fall. She was due for a booster but FUD about it
           | hurting the baby swayed her mind. She got omicron in late
           | December, post-covid complications nearly took her and the
           | baby in late February, and she had to live in the hospital
           | until she delivered in June.
           | 
           | The tricky thing with this though is that, _what if_ there is
           | an unknown side effect due to lack of research that _could
           | have_ hurt the baby (how many years of research have boosters
           | had?), and she didn 't experience that side effect but
           | unwittingly chose a different evil?
        
         | c7DJTLrn wrote:
         | Many people had concerns about the vaccine rollout. Not because
         | we were worried about some 5G nanoparticle Bill Gates
         | conspiracy nonsense but because of the potential unknown side
         | effects. Doing a trial on a few hundred thousand and then
         | rolling out to billions is like testing your changes locally
         | and then pushing them straight to production.
         | 
         | "But human bodies are not anything like software dev" I hear
         | you say. You're right. Biology is way more complicated and we
         | know less about the mechanics of our own bodies than the
         | computers we designed.
         | 
         | If we go forward assuming everything we do is infallible and
         | silencing anybody with concerns, someday we will have a real
         | disaster.
        
           | planarhobbit wrote:
           | > Biology is way more complicated and we know less about the
           | mechanics of our own bodies than the computers we designed.
           | 
           | We don't know much about that either, to be fair.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | slg wrote:
         | This lack of foresight is not something specific to this
         | vaccine. It is the male bias ingrained in most western
         | medicine. Due to fear of how experimental medicines will impact
         | fertility and pregnancy, males are usually overrepresented in
         | clinical trials which makes female specific side effects much
         | harder to detect.
        
           | brightball wrote:
           | I'd accept the male bias approach for almost anything except
           | the Covid vax.
           | 
           | There was a huge segment of society angrily screaming at
           | everyone that everything was perfectly safe, if you didn't
           | take it you were anti-vax and wanted to kill grandma. It was
           | absolutely insanity on every social media channel. I'm sure
           | some nuanced bits were lost in the noise, but it was
           | virtually impossible to openly discuss even hesitation to
           | vaccinate, much less complications.
           | 
           | We've heard from 2 local people in our small community who
           | had family members die within 24 hours of vaccination. They
           | were afraid to talk about it because of the blow back that
           | came from anyone mentioning complications. A scary side of a
           | lot of people came out and it's permanently affected my
           | perception of a great many.
           | 
           | Maybe there was a male bias in the clinical trials, but I
           | have a hard time believing any information about
           | complications would have been released or accepted at that
           | time.
        
           | planarhobbit wrote:
           | In my social circle it was women that were the most vocal on
           | both sides of the issue. The men were mostly quiet and going
           | along with whatever the wife or whoever wanted.
        
           | jelliclesfarm wrote:
           | I agree. This is something that needs discussion.
        
       | enqk wrote:
       | When people first talked about it, I was hearing scientists
       | saying that both other viruses and vaccines often change periods,
       | and thus it wasn't surprising/alarming
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | Since the intent of the vaccination is to trigger an immune
         | response very similar to the virus I think we should assume
         | that all side effects the virus can cause could also be seen in
         | vaccine trials.
         | 
         | The only symptom that I have yet to hear from the vaccination
         | is loss of smell/taste.
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | > Since the intent of the vaccination is to trigger an immune
           | response very similar to the virus I think we should assume
           | that all side effects the virus can cause could also be seen
           | in vaccine trials.
           | 
           | If you define "side effects the virus can cause" (a term that
           | usually is meaningless, "side effects" are unintended effects
           | of a therapy, and thus deoebd on both the therapy and what it
           | is intentionally used for) to mean "effects associated with
           | the immune response to the virus" this is true by definition,
           | but if you mean "symptoms of infection" it seems improbable.
           | 
           | > The only symptom that I have yet to hear from the
           | vaccination is loss of smell/taste.
           | 
           | A lot of what you hear is reports of events _after_
           | vaccination that have very little effective filtering for
           | whether they are caused by the vaccination or some other
           | cause (including COVID infection.)
        
       | mk81 wrote:
        
       | ETH_start wrote:
       | Is the reference to "people" instead of "women", in "currently
       | and formerly menstruating people", a new trend in academia?
        
         | magneticnorth wrote:
         | In this study in particular, the fact that there was
         | breakthrough menstrual bleeding for trans men and others who
         | have been hormonally preventing their periods for years was one
         | of the particularly interesting findings, imo.
        
         | christkv wrote:
         | It's the anglo-sphere they've lost the plot. It's hard to take
         | a study that splits data into white and the rest seriously as a
         | scientific study. I was unaware that africans, South Americans
         | and Asians were significantly different to "white" people to
         | make a difference needed to be pointed out.
         | 
         | What exactly are they suggesting. That the vaccine was
         | engineered to have a more negative effect on non-white women?
        
           | nerdponx wrote:
           | Medical outcomes are substantially and consistently different
           | for different racial groups in the USA. It's in part a proxy
           | for economic status. It makes sense to control for it.
        
         | throwaway406382 wrote:
         | The lead author is in women's studies, not real science.
         | 
         | I quote from their abstract: "...among a convenience
         | sample...39% of people on gender-affirming hormones"
         | 
         | convenience sample means "I asked my friends on social media"
         | 
         | And 39% on gender-affirming hormones! Yes, I know trans is all
         | the rage now, but it's not 39% of the population! It's a highly
         | biased sample.
        
       | christkv wrote:
       | I have to wonder that the insistence of boosting so often might
       | lead to the inverse effect desensitising the body to the proteins
       | just like what happens when you vaccinate against allergies,
       | possibly leading to worse illness than if you did not boost.
       | 
       | The weird insistence on anti-body levels is another weird thing,
       | just plainly ignoring immune memory.
       | 
       | I suspect that we are not seeing grave illness anymore in most of
       | the population due to the immune naive population being very low
       | and the few people dying now are in the traditional old age and
       | immune compromised categories that also die by other respiratory
       | viruses under similar circumstances.
       | 
       | Reading the science so much is fumbling in the blind (over 2
       | years into this). They are still pushing for under 5s to be
       | vaccinated in some countries even though at the efficacy of the
       | vaccine is less than 40% something that would be considered a
       | failure in any other vaccine development and knowing the groups
       | it he lowest risk group there is.
       | 
       | And before you call me anti-vaxer I had two doses of Pfizer and
       | have had covid 3 times.
        
         | manwe150 wrote:
         | Presumably that has not been a primary concern, since other
         | vaccines also have historically had regular boosters and
         | haven't seen that happen (referring to Tdap, rabies, or flu
         | shots)
         | 
         | Flu vaccine has historically also been around 25-50% effective,
         | and is still recommended and paid for by insurance, since the
         | benefit is measured positively to you. So there is some
         | precedent for disappointing numbers still being promoted for
         | their small estimated benefits in net.
        
           | christkv wrote:
           | Sure once a year for flu shots with different strains. This
           | is the exact same protein again and again. Nothing like this
           | has been done before outside of allergy vaccines from what my
           | allergist told me who is to say at the very least skeptical
           | about it.
        
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