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Irregular bleeding & the covid vax

[00:00:00] Hello, everybody. Okay? Yes. I look tired. I'm coming off of, well, I'm still on call, but I was at the hospital for a long time. This is last night. So I have Shamir mascara. I wanna talk about the menstrual irregularities after the Covid vaccine because you guys may have read about or may have experienced the possibility. 

I say possibility because. . If you're a gynecologist, you get calls literally every day, every week, every month from women of every age, meaning from when they start getting their period until women finish their period, which is anywhere from, you know, 50 to 56, 57 who are having irregularities. 

Irregularities, meaning I'm missing it or it's heavier, or I'm bleeding through pads. I'm soaking through pads. So recently what I say, I'm noticing more women calling. I do think I've done a sip. Is it my imagination? I don't know. But I always [00:01:00] try to catalog things. I like to be a purveyor of patterns, and it did seem like a bunch of women were calling with irregularities. 

Now, typically when women call with irregular bleeding, many of us have gynecologists, as gynecologists would say the same thing. And I often say to women, all right, tell me what's been going on in your life. Let's say you're not on the. , have you had weight loss? Weight gain, stress travel, for example, like going through time zones because that can be stressful in your body, changes in your, um, in a lot of things like your eating patterns, your circadian and rhythm. 

Again, things that we cannot measure, that stress your body can cause irregular bleeding. Now during Covid, I joke things like stress and weight gain. There have been very few people who have lost weight in the Western world, it seems during the covid. Um, and traveling clearly has not been a thing during covid. 

So many of my patients prior to the vaccine have been having irregular bleeding as well, merely during the emotional component [00:02:00] of covid. And I would actually say I've noticed patients who have had covid who have also called and said they've had irregular bleeding more than the norm. Hard to say again. 

And if they said to me, do you think Covid caused irregular bleeding? My response is, I don't know. But yes. Is it plausible? Well, anything that causes stress, as we said. And does Covid cause stress? Of course, COVID causes stress. Sorry, so that was weird. So why do I care about this now? What I care about is the fact that in light of the vaccine, there are many individuals who would like to malign the vaccine. 

Now, is it possible that the vaccine itself is causing irregular bleeding? Possibly an association? Yes, that is possible. Does that mean harm? Not necessarily. And here is, Why I would say so, and many people have written about this, Dr. Jen Gunther, who's a well esteemed, very public ob gyn, has written about [00:03:00] this two or three weeks ago, in fact. 

Um, and a bunch of people have, in fact, I will also link two researchers out of University of Illinois who are merely taking a survey. This is not yet really a study, but kind of a retrospective survey. Do you have menstrual irregularities? Let me be clear that do you have them? Does not mean therefore it is bad. 

and I will tell you why I say this. First and foremost, menstrual irregularities are common. They are a reflection of what's happening in our body, right? Our body works by ovulating, and then two weeks later we will have a period. We like our menstrual cycle to be fairly regular because that is a reflection of what's happening to us, right? 

When it is irregular, it means something's going on. Something onerous and terrible. No, but. Now many things can change our cycle in our world. The good things that can change it for the better can be things like weight loss. If you are overweight and you are insulin [00:04:00] resistant, you don't get your period regularly, and when you lose weight and your insulin and glucose ratios normalize, you actually get your period back to normal. 

That can be a good thing, and if you gain weight, you actually might increase the interval between your periods and. Not be as regular, and that's not necessarily a good thing. If you're stressed and you have a big exam and you have lost a lot of weight, or you just haven't been sleeping, your period can be very irregular. 

Again, what's going on with my light here? Um, so a lot of things can throw off your period, and some of these things are not detectable. They're not something we can measure. Obvious things would be your thyroid. Your prolactin hormone is suppressing your, your menstrual cycle. What I'm really talking about is heavy and irregular bleeding because that's what people tend to be reporting. 

After the vaccine within a couple days or even a couple weeks, and that's what we're trying to decide is there are a correlation. Correlation does not mean causation. So even if they're correlated right now as they [00:05:00] seem to be, and it seems like many doctors are noticing that it's possibly correlated, that doesn't mean causation. 

And most importantly, even if it is caused by the vaccine, that does not mean that it is something dangerous. The biggest reason I want to high. Is that we know right now there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy. I think that it's really important for people who. are opponents of the vaccine to understand that in the Western world, and when we talk about western world in western medicine, I mean allopathic physicians, medical doctors, dos, nurses, PAs, nurse practitioners who study western medicine and are proponents of what we consider Western medicine. 

I want everyone to understand that, for example, me as a Western trained. I don't believe that everything in Western medicine is perfect. I don't believe that everything in Western medicine comes with side effects and risks. I would never purport to say that I don't think any Western physician or Western trained healthcare [00:06:00] worker believes that, because that would be absurd. 

I think that we unfortunately have to accept a certain amount of risk. I'm sitting in a car. I don't think cars are without risks. I don't think anything we do is without risks. So I think that the playing field is not fair because when it comes to the alternative practitioners whom align western medicine and vaccines, the um, legend seems to be that we, on the. 

I hate to say sides, but on the side of Western medicine, are implying that vaccines are without risks, that vaccines are perfect, that vaccines are the panacea and they will cure everything. And we're not saying that. We're saying that in light of the pandemic, which has truly rocked our world. I think we can all agree that in our lifetime this has been the most devastating global issue that we've had to deal with that right now. 

This seems to be the best path that the majority of us agree with. I think that when the people who are against the vaccine seem to imply that we are [00:07:00] saying that it is without risk that they are speaking in untruth and they are clearly fear mongering and they are. Um, creating a situation that isn't fair and isn't correct and isn't true because no one who administers vaccines or supports vaccines would ever say that they're without risk. 

Interestingly, a lot of influencers and a lot of naturopaths and a lot of, um, the more integrative practitioners, many of whom I actually agree on some level with about certain medical practices will say things. Watch the vaccine. Do your homework because the vaccine can cause menstrual irregularities. 

Interestingly, that is true. I would say it is true. Why would we say that's wrong? And my examples to you are twofold. If you like holistic. , um, more alternative practices, for example, oils and [00:08:00] acupuncture. You as patients or followers have come to me in my office or have written to me on Instagram to tell me multiple circumstances where you have gone to your holistic practitioners for acupuncture, for cupping, used oils, and that these oils. 

Or acupuncture or cupping have altered your menstrual cycle. You've noticed changes in your flow. You've noticed increased flow, right or red flow, more frequent flow, things that you have actually deemed to be positive, sometimes very heavy. I wasn't getting my period of a and had very heavy cloudy periods. 

Lo and behold, the next cycle I got. I have multiple examples of this, and you know what? I was not worried. I was not alarmed, and I believed. That some of these things might have even helped you through mechanisms that I can't even explain because I'm not a Western practitioner that thinks that all things that are alternative are terrible because I don't think they [00:09:00] are. 

But I also believe that for every reason that acupuncture or cupping or even essential oils might help, there is also a potential that they might harm. Much like Western medicine for every vaccine, that might help. There are some harms. We know there are. We know that there are reports of harm. But in general, globally, they can help In general globally. 

Acupuncture can be so helpful. It's wonderful. Are there some harms that can be done? Yes. We need to watch all of these things. Do you hear Western practitioners maligning acupuncture and saying that it should not be done and that acupuncture in changing menstrual flow is harmful? No, you don't because we wouldn't. 

Why would we do that when in fact acupuncturists by and large do not take insurance? Acupuncturist, by and large charge a lot of money out of pocket. Acupuncturist by and large advertise, which physicians don't do. We are beholden to insurance companies who [00:10:00] pay us based on their fee schedule. So again, I'm befuddled and confused and frustrated because many of the Instagram world followers, social media followers, are willing to listen to a lot of practitioner. 

Who are not really empowering you. They're claiming to empower you with knowledge and army with knowledge and make you feel fear as opposed to offering both sides and saying vaccines are probably good in some ways, but please be cautious in understanding some of the ways they might not be good. 

Acupuncture can be wonderful in certain ways, but there are ways where it might not be. Same with oil, same with cupping, same with Tylenol, same with Advil. Same with vaginal delivery. Same with C-sections, same with chemo. , as I joke, I took my toxic chemotherapy five years ago to rid me of that cancer. Did it come with ills? 

Hell yeah, it did. But I took it because I knew the ills and I was willing to take those in opposition of my cancer [00:11:00] and in light of the fact that if I didn't take it, the ills that were worse were not what I wanted. So again, I implore you. Please, please, please be cautious in listening to people who. 

Selling you what really is unfortunately a, an absolute, and this is not to say again that I'm against any of the alternative holistic practi practitioner's work. I love it. I, I use it really, it could be super kooky and I'd still do it. I like some of that stuff. But what I'm against is fear mongering and in making women. 

Shame, regret, fear that is not healthy. It is not feminist. It is actually as anti-feminist as it could get. Don't even get me started on the birth control issue because I will talk about that at some point as well. Western medicine is not here to harm you if we wanted to harm you. There are many other ways. 

I would not be sleeping at the hospital from 9:00 PM last night if I wanted to harm people. It's just not what we do. [00:12:00] There are so many other easier ways to do it, and so again, just be cautious. Listening to that type of rhetoric. Be cautious in listening to anyone who is absolute right. Any doctor who tells you it's my way or the highway and you need to listen to me cuz I'm right. 

I agree with you. Don't listen to that doctor. question, but in a way that is not, um, trying to poke holes in everything question in a way that is understanding and truly wants to get to the bottom of what you can. And yes, do I think the vaccines might change your period? I do. I've heard enough stories that I don't think it's just anecdotal, but do I think it's causing harm? 

I do not. Just like do I think acupunc. Or cupping or oils or all the other modalities are causing harm. When you come to me saying, I use these modalities, and it changed my flow, it changed my frequency, it changed all these myriad things, I don't think you're harming yourself. I encourage you to do it because the mechanism of harm is not there.[00:13:00]  

You are shifting your hormones, and even if it did change your hormones for worse in that cycle. That's the beauty of our hormones. Our hormones are so malleable. They will alter day to day, week to week, month to month. A woman's menstrual cycle is robust. It will switch back. You are able to get it back pretty quickly. 

That's the whole point. It goes. It fluctuates. Okay. All right. I hope that makes sense. I'm gonna try to sleep. Bye-Bye.