Harvard Medical School and the Boston University School of Public Health are among a group of institutions awarded funding to study potential links between coronavirus vaccinations and changes in menstruation. Researchers at five institutions were awarded a total of $1.67 million by the National Institutes of Heath (NIH) to look into the question after anecdotal reports from women earlier this year that after they were vaccinated, they saw changes, including earlier, heavier, and more painful periods.
Laura Payne, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and a psychologist who directs the affiliated McLean Hospital’s Clinical and Translational Pain Research Laboratory, said she would be studying a group of 80 adolescent girls “to find out whether there is a relationship between the administration of the COVID vaccination and changes in the menstrual cycle.”