The possible effects of COVID-19 vaccines on reproductive health and male fertility in particular have been discussed intensely by the scientific community and the public since their introduction during the pandemic. On news outlets and social media platforms, many claims have been raised regarding the deleterious effects of COVID-19 vaccines on sperm quality without scientific evidence. In response to this emerging conflict, we designed this study to evaluate and assess the effect of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine on male fertility represented by the semen analysis parameters.
Comparing the semen parameters of the participants before and after vaccination, no statistically significant effects on semen volume, pH or normal sperm concentration and morphology were shown. However, there were statistically significant differences on total sperm motility (
Our data suggest that the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine has no deleterious effects on semen parameters.
