Collaborations between 4M members, including Jackie Maybin, Gemma Sharp, and Gabriella Kountourides, have focused on menstrual changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, there have been anecdotal reports of menstrual cycle changes, including altered frequency, duration, regularity, volume, pain, and PMS symptoms. We have investigated this from a scientific perspective – trying to understand how many people are affected, in what ways, and why. For example, are these changes due to COVID-19 infection or illness itself, a COVID vaccine, or other pandemic-related factors, such as increased stress or changes in behaviour.

Our findings suggest that the number of people who experience changes is small, and that changes are likely to be short-term and unrelated to long-term health and fertility.

We published a literature review in the International Journal of Epidemiology, which included recommendations for further research.

We also ran our own survey (led by Alexandra Alvergne, University of Montpelier) and published the results in iScience.