COVID vaccines do not impact male fertility, nor do they cause swollen testicles, as suggested by Niki Minaj

World-renown rap star Nicki Minaj tweeted about Covid-19 vaccination during the 2021 Met Gala (she did not attend since she is not vaccinated). She suggested that getting a COVID-19 vaccine will cause male impotence and swollen testicles.  

Tweet read:

My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied

There have been several claims regarding male fertility being impacted by the mRNA vaccines. We find these claims false. In a study published in JAMA back in June, researchers found that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe for male reproduction. The researchers studied 45 healthy male volunteers between ages 18 and 35. The volunteers, who had no fertility issues at the study’s start, provided a semen sample before receiving the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and provided another sample about 70 days after the second dose. They measured semen volume and sperm concentration and "found there were no declines in any of the parameters as compared to the baseline analysis."

Newswise hosted an expert panel discussion on these findings with Ranjith Ramasamy, M.D., a reproductive fertility expert at urologist from the University of Miami Health System, on June 17th. Watch the video and read the transcript here. 

Doctor Ramasamy explained...

We wanted to explore the study because there were studies including our own, showing that actual COVID was affecting male fertility. And we found that one of the elements of safety that the companies did not do was to evaluate reproductive toxicity prior to getting the emergency use authorization. So, we actually went on to test male fertility in our study of about 45 healthy volunteers before and after the vaccine. And we evaluated the sperm parameters before and after the COVID vaccine, and we found that none of the men that participated in the study had any decline in sperm parameters. And so, therefore, we concluded that the COVID vaccines appeared to be safe for male fertility.

It is important to note that male infertility can be impacted by the virus itself. COVID-19 can invade testis tissue in some men who are infected with the virus, according to a study published in The World Journal of Men's Health on November 5, 2020. 

The response below was crafted jointly by two members of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, Rebecca Saff, MD, PhD and Aleena Banerji, MD.

There is no evidence that any of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines have any impact on fertility or impotence.  Impotence has not been seen as an adverse event in the more than 380 million doses given so far to those receiving vaccines in the United States.  However, COVID infection has been linked with blood vessel inflammation including the blood vessels that supply the penis and can lead to impotence.  Sexually transmitted diseases are also a common cause of impotence and should be considered.  Without knowing all the details about a person’s medical history, there is no way to know if two events are linked which is why the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines demonstrated in large clinical trials and now the millions of people vaccinated is so important.