As the Delta variant continues to do damage locally and elsewhere — though a report from Memorial Regional Health indicates a reprieve at the moment with no COVID-19 patients in the unit at the moment — questions remain about the vaccines developed to prevent the deadly virus.

One common question: Does the COVID-19 vaccine cause infertility?

Doctors at MRH state the answer is no.

“There is no link to any data that supports this claim,” wrote a spokesperson for the hospital in an email after speaking with a specialist. “The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) asserts that these claims are completely unfounded and have no scientific evidence to support them. Further, ACOG recommends that all eligible people – including individuals who are pregnant or breastfeeding – get vaccinated.”

While the question was a reasonable concern at the beginning of the vaccine rollout, when little testing had been done on pregnant and recently pregnant women, there is much more data now.

“This week ACOG also published information about the increased risks for pregnant and recently pregnant women who contract COVID. They found that pregnant women who contract COVID are more likely than non-pregnant women to need intensive care, to need a ventilator, or to die from the illness. Bear in mind, this type of severity is low overall, but it’s more likely to happen if pregnant.”

The spokesperson pointed to the following link as the source for this medical finding: https://www.acog.org/womens-health/faqs/coronavirus-covid-19-pregnancy-and-breastfeeding.