COVID-19 vaccines do not impact development, puberty, or fertility in teenagers or children. It is also not possible for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer or Moderna to interfere with a child's genetics. Like other childhood vaccines, the immunizations for COVID-19 will not impact puberty or fertility in teenagers.

The vaccines cannot interfere with a teenager's genetics - and their genetically related development - because DNA resides in the nucleus of cells and the vaccines cannot enter the nucleus. Furthermore, the vaccines do not contain any hormonal or hormone-related ingredients that could impact teenagers' fertility or puberty.

Though fertility was not studied in the vaccines' clinical trials, there have been no reports of lost fertility among clinical trial participants and the hundreds of millions of people who have received the vaccines. In animal studies completed before the final clinical trials in humans, no signs of infertility or development challenges occurred either.

Tens of thousands of pregnant women have successfully had the vaccine before and after conception. Studies have shown that pregnant women are more likely to become severely ill if they are infected with COVID-19, making the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that pregnant women receive the vaccine.

Some researchers believe the virus itself might have the ability to interfere with fertility and development. Though the vaccines are not capable of doing so, COVID-19 infections might be. Professor Jennifer Kawwass, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, noted that "There is evidence to suggest that infection with SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to impact both male fertility, female fertility, and certainly the health of a pregnancy of someone infected," making vaccination extremely important for teenagers.

There is no evidence linking adolescent development challenges with vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines cannot access teenagers' DNA so they cannot interfere with their fertility or puberty, or cause additional issues like autoimmune diseases.

The ties between fears about fertility and development impacts in kids with the uptake of vaccines are long-standing but have no grounding in evidence.

There have also been increasing concerns about the impact of the vaccine on menstruation, potentially pausing girls' and women's cycles. There is no data or evidence that vaccines can cause these changes or impact fertility in the short- or long-term.

Menstruation cycle changes are frequent in teenagers and do not appear to be related to the vaccine. Numerous studies of vaccinated pregnant women have demonstrated that vaccines do not impact fertility or hormone regulation.

Many women in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines got pregnant after being vaccinated during the trials. Thousands of women reported having safe pregnancies according to the V-Safe app, which tracks health updates after COVID-19 vaccinations.