Does Covid-19 Vaccination in Patients Undergoing in Vitro Fertilization Affect the Live Birth Rate of Their First Embryo Transfer Cycle: A Prospective Cohort Study

Since emerging in the last months of 2019, over 127 000 000 individuals have suffered severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and the documented death toll from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had reached 2788639 individuals globally by the end of March 2021 (CDC, 2021).Although a major victory has been achieved in the fight against the epidemic since first case was reported in Wuhan City,, the cumulative death toll is 5,691 by the end of September in China . At the present time, mitigation strategies for controlling the pandemic continue to rely heavily on universal masking, physical distancing, limiting social interactions, and frequent sanitizing measures. It is hoped that widespread vaccination will further limit viral spread and shorten the length of the pandemic and its impact on morbidity and mortality.

There are currently two vaccines against the new coronavirus: inactivated vaccines and mRNA vaccines. Unlike inactivated vaccines, the mRNA vaccine does not use natural pathogens, but artificially synthesizes the gene sequence encoding a specific antigen protein, and then directly injects the mRNA encoding the antigen protein into the human body to induce the immune system to produce antibodies against the new coronavirus. Although some studies have shown that mRNA vaccines do not increase the risk of miscarriage in women, the conclusion is limited due to the lack of non-pregnant women as a control group. At the same time, the impact of inactivated vaccines on female pregnancy is still in a blank state. Nationwide anti-COVID-19 vaccination began in China in March 2020, using the inactivated vaccine vaccine. By the end of September 2021, 2206.054 million doses (including the first and second doses of the vaccine) of the vaccines have been fulfilled. We aimed to determine the impact of confirmed COVID-19 immunization on IVF outcomes, by comparing live birth rate of the first transfer cycle in patients undergoing IVF with and without COVID- 19 vaccination.