Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
A new study adds to growing evidence that there is no connection between COVID-19 vaccinations and a reduced chance of conceiving.
Rather, couples in the study had slightly lower chances of conception if the male partner had been infected with the coronavirus within 60 days -- which offers even more reason to get vaccinated against COVID-19, since the illness could affect male fertility in the short term, according to the study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
"These findings indicate that male SARS-CoV-2 infection may be associated with a short-term decline in fertility and that COVID-19 vaccination does not impair fertility in either partner," Amelia Wesselink and her fellow researchers -- from the Boston University School of Public Health and other institutions across the United States -- wrote in the study. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes COVID-19.
"This adds to the evidence from animal studies, studies of humans undergoing fertility treatment, and the COVID-19 vaccine trials, none of which found an association between COVID-19 vaccination and lower fertility," the researchers wrote. "Similarly, several studies have documented no appreciable association between COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage risk."
The study included data on 2,126 women, ages 21 to 45, in the United States and Canada. The women enrolled in the study from December 2020 through September 2021, and the researchers followed up with them through November 2021.
During the study, the women completed questionnaires online every eight weeks about their reproductive and medical histories, among other factors, and they were given the option to invite their male partners to complete questionnaires.
Among the participants, 73 per cent of the women and 74 per cent of their male partners had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The researchers analyzed the questionnaire responses and found no association between having been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the probability of conceiving a child within one menstrual cycle.
Yet the data showed that although a previous COVID-19 infection was not strongly associated with the probability of conceiving among the women, the men who had COVID-19 were associated with a "transient reduction" in the probability of conceiving.
The National Institutes of Health announced the study findings in a news release Thursday and noted that couples in which the male partner had tested positive within 60 days were 18 per cent less likely to conceive in that menstrual cycle, but there was no difference in conception rates for couples in which the male partner had tested positive more than 60 days before a cycle, compared with couples in which the male partner had not tested positive.
More research is needed to determine what might be driving these findings, but fever is known to reduce sperm count and is a symptom of COVID-19, according to the NIH.
"The findings provide reassurance that vaccination for couples seeking pregnancy does not appear to impair fertility," Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study, said in the announcement. "They also provide information for physicians who counsel patients hoping to conceive."
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.