AccScience Publishing / MI / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/MI025310067
COMMUNICATION

Menstrual adverse events post-COVID-19 and human papillomavirus immunization

Darrell O. Ricke1*
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1 Molecular BioInsights, Winchester, Massachusetts, United States of America
Received: 28 July 2025 | Revised: 7 September 2025 | Accepted: 9 October 2025 | Published online: 3 November 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Some women are experiencing menstrual adverse events (AEs), including heavier bleeding, following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spike immunization. The etiology of these menstrual AEs associated with the COVID-19 spike immunization remains unknown. The United States Department of Health and Human Services Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database was retrospectively analyzed for data-reported AEs affecting menstrual cycles by vaccine. Elevated normalized frequencies for menstrual AEs were detected for multiple vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer BioNTech: 4,442, Pfizer BioNTech bivalent: 686, Moderna: 2,038, and Moderna bivalent: 463, all/100,000 VAERS reports) and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines (HPV Cervarix: 6,090, HPV Gardasil: 2,959, and HPV Gardasil 9: 1,556 all/100,000 VAERS reports). Lower normalized frequencies were detected for both COVID-19 bivalent vaccines and the HPV Gardasil 9 vaccine, compared to higher normalized frequencies for COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech, COVID-19 Moderna, HPV Cervarix, and HPV Gardasil vaccines. χ2 (2 × 2) statistically significant differences in normalized frequencies were observed between different COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech lots (p<0.00001) and also COVID-19 Moderna lots (p<0.00001). Manufacturing contaminants (e.g., endotoxins) are likely candidates, consistent with the observed data, for the reported menstrual AEs that vary by vaccine version and batch lot.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Menstruation
Menstrual cycle
Endotoxin
mRNA vaccines
COVID-19 vaccine
Human papillomavirus vaccine
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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Microbes & Immunity, Electronic ISSN: 3029-2883 Print ISSN: 3041-0886, Published by AccScience Publishing