Dr Munjaal Kapadia | Can the COVID-19 Vaccine affect Periods| Breastfeeding | Preconception

0:00 hi guys so very excited to chat today about an impending question that i am sure that a lot a lot of women have uh including me as soon as the government rolled out the guidelines on 18 to 45 plus year olds uh 18 to 45 year olds can now take the vaccine it was a no-brainer and all of us thought that um okay what happens about our periods and a lot of people have seen some irregularities have seen heavier flow

0:30 have seen a little bit of destruction in their cycles and that's exactly what we're going to be chatting with today with obgy and dr munjal and i think it's a conversation that has been on top of mind for a lot of us including us and we totally wanted to have this conversation so i'm very glad that um we're going to be chatting with him today and he has of course uh spoken on and about this in one of his tweets as

0:56 well hey what's up very well but ever since we announced this uh session we've been getting and and we've literally been inundated with a lot of questions uh and i'm so glad that you put out that tweet because it's gonna have uh you know it's just gonna help so many people especially uh especially the women because everybody's in a limbo in terms of uh what to do what not to do etc the question which which everybody wants to

1:22 know right now is um does does the vaccine have a different impact on women and of course is there a a guideline or a protocol sort of thing that you are advising your patients or women to take it on a specific date before after and you know whatever you've seen above the 45 year olds any learnings from there vaccines aren't gender specific generally unless they are designed to prevent a particular

1:52 disease in a particular uh set of individuals so that applies to the covet vaccine as well there have been rumors going around saying that your immunity goes down just before your periods during your periods just after your periods for whatever reason i don't know the genesis of it but one thing is for certain that these rumors are categorically untrue you are supposed to take the vaccine as soon as you get access to it having your period does not make you more prone to

2:20 getting covered it's not like even if you're not vaccinated you need to be more careful around your uh periods and less careful when you're not on your period you're supposed to be careful all the time we have learned that covet is an incredibly infectious disease and you need to always be on your guard when it comes to the vaccine um even if it's your first day of your period even if it's the last day of your

2:43 period i it absolutely doesn't matter it will not affect the way the vaccine interacts with your body with your immune system it will not influence the way antibodies are made in your body against the the virus so please please please put this out of your head and go and take your vaccine is there enough data to kind of support this i mean what are we basing our assumptions on because we have heard of a few cases where where

3:11 people have said that their cycles have gone haywire after the vaccine or their flow has tremendously increased after the vaccine so do you feel like there is enough data to share this it is not only about data it is about science and it's about how vaccines work and it's about how how your immune response works and that doesn't impact your periods or your reproductive hormones so that is something that is grounded in science will there be cases where somebody said

3:40 my next period after my vaccine was heavier yes the vaccine is the incidental finding here it's just a it happened to be a coincidence it's akin to me saying that ever since i took a flight for some reason i've got a headache it's it's like it's it's like saying i i ate this particular thing and then my cycles became irregular the this is false equal balance i understand that it's it's a very significant moment in a lot

4:09 of people's lives right now being able to get vaccinated it's cathartic almost for people after a year or more of this vaccine finally to get it's a big event that people end up remembering and hence whatever happens thereafter is attributed wrongfully to that event so there is no scientific basis for it it's like there are so many women who've gone in for the cervical cancer vaccine works the same way it's against a virus but you don't hear about it killing your

4:37 fertility you don't hear about it affecting your periods because the sensationalism around that particular vaccine is not there when it comes to the covalent vaccine it will not affect your feelings will some people feel some amount of soreness in their arms yes will you feel a certain amount of body ache for a few days maybe will you have a little bit of a headache or flu-like symptoms for a few days well yes but will it affect your reproduction no

5:05 so that brings me to my next question which is again something um that all pregnant women want to know should they get vaccinated while they are carrying their child okay so there are two there are two things i i want to say about this um one is from a policy standpoint and the other is a scientific recommendation from a policy standpoint even if they want to get vaccinated they can't in our country so the ministry of health

5:34 and family welfare in india has not yet approved both these vaccines kovi shield or covaxen for administrative administration during pregnancy or during breastfeeding now the reasoning behind this is very sound is that we just don't have enough data this vaccine is expedited where it has been tested amongst individuals who haven't been pregnant or breastfeeding or under 18 etc so we don't have the data having said that you can extrapolate data from abroad you can extrapolate

6:06 data from other vaccines and apply it to this because our national obstetrics and gynecological societies what is known as foxy is pushing to make sure that this very very vulnerable group of individuals breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women should be vaccinated we are seeing that abroad that is starting to happen people have been taking vaccination with the pfizer vaccine abroad gynecologists have been signing waivers when they're themselves pregnant or breastfeeding and taking the vaccine we give a lot of

6:38 vaccines during pregnancy and during breastfeeding sometimes even to the mother at to no detriment of the child if anything we believe that it will benefit both the pregnant mother and the unborn child so scientifically according to me scientifically according to me and a lot of my colleagues it is safe but also i understand the ministry of health and family welfare's concerns that look this this is a very vulnerable population let's wait a little bit and then we'll approve it

7:11 what i would like to still say is that i am very hopeful that within the next few months uh the national body foxy of gynecologists will try to push this through so that so many so many so many mothers 50 benefit from this vaccine so right now even though i want everybody to get vaccinated including my pregnant patients and my post-pregnancy patients and even few of my relatives etc they can't they can't get vaccinated officially they can't so that brings us

7:40 to the next question which is and why you said that officially they cannot be vaccinated but a lot of mothers have this question is can i breastfeed while you know after the vaccine which is exactly what you said lactating mothers are still not permitted right they're not so many but in case there's a guideline which is past saying okay it's opened up for breastfeeding mothers you shouldn't have any hesitancy in feeding your child uh at all you must

8:07 understand that the vaccine doesn't have there are two types of vaccines in the country kobe shield and covax covaxin has the dead virus the inactivated virus it cannot give you the disease right so there is no way you can transmit kobit to your baby after taking the vaccine whereas when it's astrazeneca or the kobe shield vaccine it has a certain genetic material which stimulates your body to make proteins which are just similar to coronavirus and your body will react against it and

8:34 protect you again so again there is no virus in that vaccine as well so there is no way no way that you can get infected with these uh viruses after taking them and transmit it you cannot you can't yeah you may get it from somebody else at the vaccination center you may get it from somebody at home and give it to your baby but you yourself through the vaccine cannot infect your child of course the other question that a lot of

8:58 women are asking are is can they conceive after taking the vaccine so if they are trying to have a baby is there a before after protocol that you want them to follow or absolutely nothing it doesn't matter take the vaccine as soon as you can that's all i'll say there's a little bit of a worry that some patients have had recently and they're like okay i am eligible for may 1st uh for the vaccine but what if i end up conceiving in may

9:26 what will happen to my second dose and all i can tell them is one dose is still better than no dose and if if if officially the guidelines do come about in a few months etc that you can vaccinate during pregnancy well good for you you'll get there you'll get your second news then otherwise you would advise them to kind of hold on to that conception plan for about absolutely not six to eight weeks no no not at all

9:50 not at all okay that one's important because i think a lot of uh a lot of people may i i know a lot of people who are holding on because they now know that they're eligible for the vaccine and they don't hold on don't hold on you don't need to plan your pregnancy around this vaccine you can get pregnant the very next day you can conceive the same night you get the vaccine this is i'm sure to all of those

10:13 ones who are kind of uh holding that on it's a weird way to celebrate the vaccine but i mean yeah yeah okay uh next question is on the ibf cycles again does it impact does the vaccine have any impact on your ibf or iui cycles um no not at all the only thing that um that you could kind of uh be worried about is there's a little bit of symptoms as if people undergoing iui or ivf don't have it hard enough and to

10:45 take two more jabs in between all the other jabs and to be down with flu-like symptoms so other than the concern of having to disrupt your already disrupted daily schedule for you know with ivf to have one more thing added but i think this uh getting vaccinated supersedes everything that is health priority number one in the country yeah and i think uh i mean i i take it as a privilege even if we get it in the first 15 days of uh

11:14 first 15 days of may i think we're a privileged lot because i mean i've been seeing the news this afternoon and the way people are queuing up i don't even know if that 15th may is a realistic deadline so so the thing the thing is that um you have to understand that there is there are a lot of people from 18 to 45 with vaccines with vaccines shortages everybody isn't going to be able to get vaccinated within the first

11:36 even couple of weeks i would advise you to be patient balance out your schedule a little bit uh try and make sure that you if you can wait a few days and be careful for a few days avoid crowding these vaccination centers and overburdening these vaccination centers all on day one right if you can as a as a family or as a as a group of friends can uh stagger yourselves why not don't don't be nervous if you don't get

12:05 in the first week or the second week hang tight um stay safe wear a mask maintain all other protocol that you're maintaining at work and at home and then when you do get vaccinated i mean at least it'll be done in a way that is a little more comfortable than standing for ours together we've had people who are asking um whether men can't seem to donate the plasma is there a reason who can't donate we mean women after the

12:32 vaccine can't donate plasma why would you burden why would you burden women who just given birth to go and donate plasma yes i mean there are enough enough people otherwise to to go and donate plasma when a woman has just given birth we don't ask her to donate blood as well right because there's a lot of changes that are occurring in her body she's breastfeeding currently she should be bleeding a little bit her body is readjusting her internal fluids

12:58 are real dusting so i mean they're the least they're the last group of people that you should actually pester for donating uh plasma another another thing a lot of people have been worried about is can i um give donate blood after taking the vaccine and people are anticipating that 18 to 45 year olds are usually the people who end up donating blood etc and they were anticipating a lot of shortage in blood banks so um again

13:27 this is uh uncertain and it's not a complete science and it's not rooted in any big studies but abroad from what i can read people have been waiting for about two weeks before they donate blood or plasma uh after the vaccine unless you know which vaccine you've taken so if you in the united states you know that you've taken motor now right if not if you don't know which vaccine you've taken and sure you wait you wait you wait two weeks we've had

13:54 somebody who's asked a very specific question is do we need to finish both doses before getting pregnant embryo transfer in case of ivf no i mean unless unless you want to protect yourself before you transfer etc your embryos already frozen there's no rush to transfer it right now you're like okay my transfer is due in mid-may but i might as well take my vaccine mid-may or in may and then the second dose in june and then i can

14:21 transfer in july if you're okay with that timeline then then great you have a slightly higher degree of protection while going to the hospital or a clinic but that's the only reason there is no actual reason when it comes to pregnancy right uh somebody's actually asked that i have just recovered from kovid um after how many days or weeks should i plan my baby well right away celebrate your status there's there's gonna be no from what i

14:49 understand when she says i've recovered from kobe i'm understanding she me she she's completely asymptomatic she has no lingering side effects she has no persistent lung problems she has no persistent problems in her blood tests etc so if you're absolutely healthy and good to go go for it i love your optimism i think you're just like kind of feeding in so much of positivity in a time where everybody seems to be so gloomy so i just i i like that it's kind

15:14 of uh already like i think adding in so much zing to all the women who perhaps watching uh watching us live right now uh but african channel any other questions which you've been persistently getting um with regards to any myths that you would like to share chat or talk about a lot of questions about which vaccine should i opt for who wish you loved and people are very valued about what to take etc the answer is um whichever one

15:41 you get access to first and um the only thing that you need to consider is that uh whichever one you is your first those should be the second dose as well so plan a plan accordingly very often uh co-vaccine is not available at many centers or it's at limited centers etc so uh make sure that you choose wisely um please don't hold out for coaxing if cover covashil is available and vice versa nobody remembers i can assure you that

16:11 out of all the people who've tuned in nobody knows which brand of measles vaccine they took as a child or which brand of polio vaccine they took as a child or which brand of tetanus shot they took when they last hurt themselves so uh there is always a difference between brands in terms of efficacy between 83 and 84 and 92 and 79 in in real world terms it means nothing absolutely nothing just take the just take whichever vaccine you get can

16:39 people who are allergic to penicillin and sulphur in algen drug take the vaccine yes you can uh they will ask you though at the vaccination center what you're allergic to and accordingly they'll they'll decide whether you can there's a small list of people they were very careful when healthcare workers started getting the vaccine that's when we took the vaccine uh the very kind notes that at our bmc hospital at that time it wasn't with private hospitals uh who was very

17:07 careful to ask me are you allergic to any medicines and the people who said they were allergic to multiple medicines they said okay so don't take it right now we'll take it later but that i think was because of paucity of data but now people i think opening up and you can take it there's no no sulfur penicillin in this vaccine okay uh and we have some views asked about pcod and vaccine i'm assuming that that there's there's there's no relation

17:30 there's no relation suppose a woman who has already recovered from povid gets pregnant can she still get a vaccine well officially not in our country um like i said it hasn't been approved yet hopefully soon once it opens up for pregnant mothers then we'll see but right now i mean if she's recovered from covered hopefully she already has that how many weeks should you wait before uh before the doses so i think that if you want to take that one anything after

17:55 four weeks so i took my second dose at four weeks there's some studies which they wait a little longer six weeks there are others would say eight weeks but anywhere between six to eight weeks is the sweet spot new guidelines new uh recommendations will keep coming in don't take it within four weeks obviously they won't allow you to take it within four weeks but anywhere between four to sometimes even twelve weeks but according to me six to eight

18:21 weeks is like the easily manageable most of this it won't be like a personal choice you will get that the message on your phone when your next dose is due so you'll probably have to go accordingly there's a very good question do you need to take an antibody test before taking the vaccine if your report was negative but you had mild symptoms um no you don't need to take any tests before taking the vaccine even if you had

18:42 covered even if you documented antibodies such as myself you still take the vaccine and but you have yeah so nothing even if you had the the vaccine even if even if you had the disease even if you had the antibodies i had like a ton of antibodies before before the day i took the vac so no test required absolutely not okay um very quickly i want you to just uh any any other questions that you typically get that you would want to

19:10 share about and use the platform to share that yeah just one last thing there's a there's a huge mistake that people make after taking the vaccine assuming that they are immune uh to govern after that they think that um they don't need to wear a mask anymore they can't get covered anymore they can't transmit kovid anymore you're wrong the vaccine is like a seat belt the vaccine is like wearing a helmet you can still get into the accident but it will

19:37 save your life so the only thing only thing the vaccine prevents is severe debilitating illness the need for oxygen or hospitalization and most of all death you can still give it to somebody who's not vaccinated by being careless by transmitting it to your grandmother to somebody else's grandmother or mother or parents so be very very careful you can still get covert you will still need to isolate if you get covered you may not die with somebody who you've

20:06 been careless around me so be careful great thank you so much uh dr punjab this was really really helpful and uh thank you so much for taking our time to do this happy to do this nancy i'll see you guys soon thanks thanks so much [Music]