Birth rates in the United States have recently continued to fall. Birth rates for women between 25-29 years of age fell from 118 births per 1000 females in 2007 to 105 in 2015. One factor being investigated is the role the vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) may play in the trend toward fewer births. Shortly after the HPV vaccine was licensed, several reports of recipients experiencing “primary ovarian failure” emerged.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which represented 8 million 25-to-29-year-old women living in the United States between 2007 and 2014, was studied. Using logistic regression to analyze the data, results suggest that females who received the HPV shot were less likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the same age group who did not receive the shot. “If 100% of females in this study had received the HPV vaccine, data suggest the number of women having ever conceived would have fallen by 2 million.” The researchers advise further study into the influence of HPV vaccine on fertility.