COVID-19 vaccination has no effect on male fertility, sperm count not harmed: Study

A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has stated that the sperm count and quality don't decrease in healthy young men after taking the first or second dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The study examined sperm samples from 45 males aged 25 to 31 who had been pre-screened to ensure they didn't have any reproductive difficulties.

Samples were obtained before the first dose of an mRNA vaccine and again 70 days afterwards.

The volume, concentration, motility, and total sperm count of the sperm were then measured in the sperm. 

There were no significant decreases in any sperm parameter among this group of healthy men.

"We found no changes in sperm parameters in the young healthy men that we studied who received both doses of mRNA vaccine," said study author Dr Ranjith Ramasamy, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the University of Miami Health System.

Despite the vaccine's great efficacy and low side effects in clinical studies, just 56% of people in the United States said they wanted it.

The risk for vaccination-induced infertility is one of the grounds for vaccine hesitancy. 

However, some experts believe that additional larger studies with men of different ages are needed to affirm the study's results.