military infertility

Military Infertility - Pfc. Shaniah Edwards, Detachment Medical, prepares to administer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to soldiers and airmen at Joint Forces Command, Feb. 12, 2021. (U.S. Army National Guard/Sgt. Leona C. Hendrickson).

About 70% of US Army soldiers have received the new coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. But when it comes to why other people haven't been vaccinated, some of the reasons they give have no scientific basis and are not supported by research or data.

Military Infertility

In a new episode of the 18th Airborne Corps podcast, three military medical experts meet with Colonel Joe Buccion, spokesman for the unit, to discuss the new coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, concerns about the new Delta variant and finally cracking down on the myths. the most common they've ever heard about vaccines.

Madigan Starts First Dod Infertility Fellow Program

Debunking myths and misinformation is critical as COVID variants are on the rise, especially among the unvaccinated population. Of the progress the United States has made so far, Lieutenant Colonel Owen Price, the military health officer at Fort Bragg, said that "we only need one mutation to go down the hill."

"I know everyone seems to be on COVID, everyone is dealing with it," he said. "But we have to get to the point where the virus is not safe anywhere, and we will only do that through vaccination - and if we don't get there, we'll back off."

By May, half of American adults had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but vaccination rates began to decline around the same time. According to the Washington Post, the US peaked at 3.4 million vaccines a day in April, but the country averaged less than 1 million vaccines a day in June, even though more people qualified.

While more than 988,000 US military service members have been fully vaccinated as of July 14, the latest figures are available on the Pentagon's website, many service members are still opting out - some simply because they can. Some soldiers saw this as a rare opportunity to say no to the army, although that opportunity may soon be a thing of the past as the service is reportedly preparing to roll out a mandatory vaccine if it gets full approval for food and medicine. Administration.

Infertility In The Military

However, the surge of the Delta variant, which is more contagious than any other identified variant and currently accounts for 83% of new COVID cases, could jeopardize the "weak" progress already achieved with vaccination that has allowed people to get the vaccine. back to "normal levels", said Lieutenant Colonel Price.

"What we haven't achieved is the level of resilience we need to maintain if these variants continue to emerge," Price said. "And I think that's the situation we're in now with this Delta variant - it's much more contagious and will affect the unvaccinated population in particular and we may lose that precarious base and take a few steps back to where we started." us, even back to November.

According to CBS, in November, the United States reported more than 4 million cases of COVID-19 — more than the total number of cases recorded by almost every country in the world for the entire year.

So why aren't soldiers vaccinated? Buccino said he spoke to dozens of soldiers about their concerns about vaccines and that many of their worries stem from the same problem: misinformation.

How I Navigated Infertility + Military Benefits: Heidi's Story

"There is no evidence that any vaccine causes erectile dysfunction, infertility, infertility in men or women," said Dr. Sammy Choi, head of research at Womack Fort Bragg Military Medical Center, said in a podcast.

Price dismissed concerns that the vaccine could affect pregnancy, saying "we haven't seen results yet." And Lieutenant Colonel Teresa Pearce, Fort Bragg's director of public health and preventive medicine physician, said there was no evidence to suggest the vaccine caused miscarriage - another concern raised by the military.

"People forget that ... we have miscarriages that only happen in the normal population," Pearce said. “I miscarried, many women miscarried. So if you have a group of women who are getting the vaccine, if they miscarry it's not necessarily related to or caused by the vaccine, it may just be part of the normal miscarriage background.

Buccino said he also heard some soldiers say that the vaccine "boosts the virus" and that in turn causes variants. According to Choi, this is also not true.

Viral 'homecoming' Photos Capture Military Dad Meeting His Baby For The First Time

"If a vaccine can prevent people from being infected, it won't cause replication and then mutations and variants," he said. "The logic would be completely the opposite."

Buccino also said he was told that soldiers saw on Facebook that the vaccine "could change DNA." As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, this will not happen.

According to the CDC, “The COVID-19 vaccine does not alter or interact with your DNA in any way. mRNA vaccines and vectors of the COVID-19 virus send instructions (genetic material) to our cells to start building protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the material never enters the cell nucleus where our DNA is stored.”

Other soldiers said their commanders pushed the vaccines "without thinking" to look good in front of higher command, Buccino said. Choi's takedown basically boils down to: So what?

Veterans Groups Say Va Should Offer Ivf To Unmarried, Same Sex Couples

"If that was the commander's intention - just to get the number - the next thing I would say was, well, put that aside," he said. “Besides, is the vaccine good? We did a lot of things that we weren't always happy with the vehicle it came from.

Choi also explained that he has discovered that some people are holding COVID-19 vaccines to a "surveillance and research level" that they don't use for other drugs and vaccines.

"It seems like you want to make sure that you never get side effects, that there's never a breakthrough case, and third, that it's long-term immunity, you'll never need a booster," Choi recalls to his son-in-law - the vaccine law . "But if we applied the same criteria to other vaccines, we would never -- women would not get the highly effective cervical cancer viral vaccine, the human papillomavirus, HPV vaccine, we would not get the chickenpox vaccine ... that. this.

In the end, Choi, Price, and Pearce said the vaccine was safe, effective, and more important than making other people sick or sick, and Choi added that if he could, he would meet with any soldier who hesitated to explain as much as he could. .

Military Women Suffer Infertility At 3 Times The Rate Of Civilians

Haley Britzky joined Task & Purpose as a military reporter in January 2019. She previously worked at Axios covering breaking news. He reported on major developments in the service, from new uniforms to new policies; the realities of military life of soldiers and their families; and broader cultural issues that develop outside the military, touching every military service. Contact the author here. One retired army officer said he was only 21 when exposure to chemicals used to strip paint from aircraft parts left him infertile.

Her story is just one of those compiled in a disturbing report by the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), an advocacy group for serving and veteran women, detailing military women's access to reproductive health care.

Based on a survey of nearly 800 active, reserve, retired and veteran women, SWAN found that more than 30% of women who are currently serving or have served in the armed forces report infertility. According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 12% of civilian women have difficulty getting pregnant or staying pregnant. It is this discrepancy, according to activists, that is most disturbing.

"These data clearly require further research to demonstrate high rates of infertility," the report said.

Ivf Military Discount

Jessica Maxwell, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, said the military was collecting data on infertility. The September 2013 issue of the monthly medical report indicated that more than 16,800 female servants had been diagnosed with infertility over a 13-year follow-up period.

This represents less than 1% of active women serving at the time, in stark contrast to the results of the SWAN report, which includes self-reported figures. The military data, now over five years old, represents women who were "hospitalized during the surveillance period" and whose hospitalization records showed a certain infertility code, according to a report reviewed by Business Insider.

In an emailed statement to Business Insider, Maxwell said that military service members who are unable to conceive within "acceptable clinical guidelines are provided with full access to maternal fetal medicine and uninterrupted fertility services."

The military report also states that its health care system "does not provide non-intercourse reproductive therapy ... with the exception of service members who have lost their natural reproductive capacity due to active duty-related disease or injury."

Pdf) Studying The Effect Of Infertility On Marital Violence In Turkish Women

Many of the women who responded to the survey told SWAN that their infertility was related to the service. One of the respondents, a former army officer