The Covid Vaccine Affected My Fertility

I had my period 4 times in less than 2 months following vaccination.

I keep track of my periods and for the first three months of this year, my period came exactly 28 days apart. I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine the first week of April and I wasn’t expecting to get my period until the end of April.

I had a bad reaction to the vaccine and was in bed for three days. I was still feeling chills and fever a week after the shot. It felt like the flu to me. Body aches, headache, and fever. But I took comfort in the belief that the reaction would eventually pass and that I wasn’t actually suffering from covid or influenza.

My period came the day after the shot. I was actually relieved that it came early as I was afraid of getting pregnant. I have three children and none of them were planned. It’s been a family joke that my husband and I are fertile people.

I wasn’t alarmed initially because a friend had mentioned that she had gotten her period the day after she received her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. She hadn’t had a period for over six months as she was perimenopausal. Her periods had been erratic for several years and she thought that she was on her final countdown to menopause when she was vaccinated. She called her doctor after she suddenly got her period and wasn’t given an in-person appointment as her doctor had no concerns. A month after that period, she didn’t get another one. She did however get a light period three months later.