H1N1 Priority Pre-Pregnancy

H1N1 vaccines are recommended prior to conception

(RxWiki News) Entering infertility treatment is a time of both hope and fear for most women. Hope there can be a child and fear that it may not be possible.

A new study conducted from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development verifies that a women should receive the H1N1 vaccine prior to fertility treatments and conception.

"Get your flu shot before fertility treatments."

Last year, the Center for Disease Controls (CDC) and ASRM issued a statement recommending that women be vaccinated prior to treatment for infertility.

William Gibbons, M.D., President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, (ASRM), recommends that based on this study's findings the ASRM stands by their original statement that urges all women to get an H1N1 vaccine before initiating infertility treatments.

The current study used data from the CDC, National Survey of Family Growth, and a PubMed search. Given the collected data, they estimated the H1N1 vaccination rate, infection rate, how many infertility visits, the frequency that obstetric patients were hospitalized with H1N1, and the maternal death rate attributed to H1N1.

The researchers found that the current immunization rate is about 24 percent of expectant moms. Given that, they estimated that up to 17.5 maternal deaths would not have occurred had they received the immunization. It was also estimated that 72 deaths could have been prevented if all the expecting mothers had received the vaccine.

Review Date: 
August 29, 2011