Covid-19 vaccination BNT162b2 (Pfizer) temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/andr.13209

If you read my post on Cochrane and Wiley you will get a chuckle that Wiley published this data.  Read this article through the lens of “hey, we’re gonna own that this happens but NO WORRIES KIDS, sperm count rebounds no problemo.   What they do not account for here is repeated vaccinations and boosters beyond the original 2 vaccines?  What does that do to sperm count?  What if they did an analysis on just one vaccine not both?  Was the cumulative effects different in 1 jab versus 2 jab?  We don’t know.  And can the study of sperm bank donations be applicable to the general population?  Because sperm bank donors are the crème de la crème of strong motile sperm (hence why they qualify for donation).  Sooooo……if the best of the best in count and motility are experiencing this problem, what about the average Joe who maybe has a lower count and motility to begin with?  Do they rebound as fast or do they have ongoing issues?  Remember the data posted in earlier posts about the ovaries and testes being affected by the covid vaccine spike proteins?  So what happens to fertility in a couple who has both of their reproductive systems affected by a covid vaccine?

OK the article data.

37 donors from three sperm banks that provided 220 samples.  All received BNT162b2 (Pfizer) vaccination included two doses.  Semen analysis was done in four phases: pre-vaccination baseline control, which encompassed 1–2 initial samples per donor.  THe following 3 phases were  1–3 semen samples per donor provided 15–45 days,, 75-120 days, and over 150 days after vaccination completion.  The primary endpoints were semen parameters.

Results:

−15.4% sperm concentration decrease on the day 75-120 day samples leading to total motile reduction of 22.1% reduction compared to pre-vaccine.  Similarly, analysis of semen samples only resulted in concentration and total motility reductions of 12 million/ml spermatozoa and 31 million motile spermatozoa on first sample evaluation (day 15-45 post vaccines) and median decline 27.3 million motile spermatozoa when they averaged the day 15-45 sample and day 75-120 samples.  The study states that day 150+ post vaccination “demonstrated overall recovery.”

So what do we NOT know?  Well, we don’t know pre-vaccine motility and sperm counts.  So we cannot compare pre vaccine data against the trial data as it is not shared here.  How can we verify that the 150 day + counts are recovered and back to normal back to baseline if we do not even know what the sperm count/motility WAS prior to vaccine and at day 150+ post vaccine?  That would be helpful data to include here.  We should see the hard data numbers pre trial and 150+ days post vaccine to SHOW that those numbers do indeed rebound back to normal.  Also, did we do a follow up study on this after a booster?  Data on that is zero.  DId we see the same spermatozoa and motility drop with booster?

What are the implications of this?  Well, for starters, I think this article was a “cover our ass” of sorts.  “Yeah, sperm count/motility drop can happen, but its ok it will go back to normal”.   But we aren’t going to give you any pre vaccine data because we don’t want you to see how dramatic the drop was and we don’t want you to really see the numbers post 150 days after vaccine because maybe they did not truly go back up to pre-vaccine levels.   Second implication to this:  what if a couple is trying to have a baby??  As we all know, there is a finite window each month to get pregnant the “good ol fashioned” way.  Ovulation window provides, at best guess, a 5 day window to get pregnant.  If sperm count is low and existing sperm have poor motility, the odds of getting pregnant are much lower.  At best a normal healthy couple has a 15-20% chance of getting pregnant in an average month.  What does that percentage become when sperm count and motility are decreased?  It drops significantly.  Motility is very important, as sperm have to work hard to overcome many anatomical barriers inside a female to get to the awaiting ovum to achieve pregnancy.  Poor motility means the sperm die off before they even get close to the goal post.

Lets throw out a couple of hypotheticals:  lets say that the booster does the same thing the first 2 vaccines do.  150 days+ to get back to normal sperm count and motility.  Lets hypothesize someone got boostered 160 days (5 months) after their first 2 vaccines.  That, my friends, could be a potential 10-12 months, nearly a year, of “wasted” fertile time to conceive a baby.  Sounds like no big deal, right?  Many couples delay pregnancy for many other reasons.  But what if you are already older, say, 39 years old.  Maybe you didn’t delay HAVING a family, you finally met the person you wanted to marry at age 36 and got married later in your 30’s.  Women are considered “geriatric” in terms of pregnancy at that point.  Their fertility is already dropping.  Age 35 is the magical “cut off” for prime fertility for women.  So if you lost a year of potential pregnancy capability due to the vaccine, you are now 40.  Women’s fertility starts to drop pretty quickly and some are already peri-menopausal at that point.  Did the covid vaccine prevent that couple from becoming parents?  Will it require medical intervention such as in-vitro to have a baby at that point?  We didn’t even get into what the vaccine can do to ovulation and abnormal bleeding in women.

Shouldn’t reduced sperm motility and count be included in the pre-vaccination risk and benefit discussion so that informed consent can be given that the patient is ok with this risk prior to vaccinating themselves?  How many young couples are struggling with fertility due to the covid vaccine and have no clue that is what is causing it?