Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Edinburgh and Oxford sought to evaluate the existing anecdotal and scientific literature on menstrual cycle feature changes in the COVID-19 pandemic and provide suggestions for future research. They conducted a comprehensive review of current literature and found just 12 studies that had reported on menstrual changes in relation to the pandemic in general and/or COVID-19 specifically. None of the COVID-19 vaccine trials has collected data on menstrual changes.

Anecdotes shared online and data from the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme for adverse drug reactions, suggested that many women and people who menstruate have experienced disruptions to their menstrual cycles since the start of the pandemic, either due to pandemic-related factors like stress and behaviour changes and/or due to COVID-19 illness itself or COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.

Read the full University of Bristol press release

Paper: 'The COVID-19 pandemic and the menstrual cycle: research gaps and opportunities' by G Sharp et al. in the International Journal of Epidemiology