New York – Such as widespread misinformation about it COVID-19 vaccines and infertility took hold on social media, rumors spread as quickly as the virus itself and scared some women about getting an injection.
Jay Huber, a fertility doctor in New Orleans, is asked daily by his patients if the vaccine causes infertility. He said there is no evidence that that is happening.
“I think it is important to debunk the myths because patients need access to accurate information,” Huber told CBS News.
So what’s the biggest misconception?
“This concept that the vaccination will train the human immune system to create an antibody that would cross-react with the vital placental protein, ultimately causing infertility,” he said.
The unfounded fear, Huber said, is that an antibody would attack not only the virus but the placenta as well.
Stacey Clarke, a 36-year-old nurse, is receiving fertility treatment from Huber. She is concerned that the vaccine could in some way affect her ability to conceive.
“It’s just too early to put anything strange into my body because of what I’m going through,” she said. “There’s a lot of emotion. Because I’ve done this twice before and it didn’t work out.”
Clarke said the thought of becoming sterile had occurred to her, but Huber reassured her.
“He obviously believes there is enough evidence to get the vaccine,” she said of their discussions. “So we’ve reached an agreement for the time being.”
Clarke said many of her female colleagues share those fears.
“We feel very much the same way about the vaccine … We don’t know the long-term effects on ourselves or on the fetus,” she said.
Huber addressed that issue: “I don’t think reproductive women need to worry about their future fertility if they get this COVID-19 vaccine. The data we have so far is that the vaccine is very safe.”
Clarke said she doesn’t think anything would change her mind about the vaccine. Not even this cautionary tale of 35-year-old Anna Almendrala. She fell ill with COVID after her fertility treatment.
In a video she can be seen gasping for breath.
“The scary thing is that things can suddenly change with this virus,” she said.
Days later she was in hospital and wrote a suicide note to her daughter.
When asked what she would say to women who don’t want the vaccine at all, Almendrala referred to the prevalence of COVID in the US.
“I would say at this point … now that the virus is so widespread, you have to choose between getting the vaccine or getting COVID,” she said.
Almadrala said she is relieved that there is a vaccine and that she will gladly take it – when it is her turn.
“I think this experience really showed us that we already have so much to be grateful for,” she said. “I almost felt like I was a few days away from losing everything.”
Read more from our CBS News series “Women and the Pandemic” below: