This is indicated by a study carried out by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (IBYME), in Buenos Aires, which analyzed samples of 34 healthy patients and 46 recovered COVID-19 patients, asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. Analyzes were based on follicular fluids, the fluid that surrounds the oocyte.
“(…) our results describe for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 infection negatively affects the follicular microenvironment and, therefore, deregulates ovarian function,” the study states.
In a second analysis, it was found that the samples of those who suffered from COVID-19 presented “greater genomic damage in ovarian and endothelial cell cultures.”
The researchers also stimulated a culture of human ovarian cells with the follicular fluids and found that those from women who had COVID produced lower levels of three markers that favor pregnancy.
The samples of the women infected with COVID had contracted the virus in a period of two to nine months prior to the study and in none of the cases were they vaccinated.