COVID-19 vaccination may increase risk for urinary tract symptoms

COVID-19 vaccination seems to have some side effects on the lower urinary tract and overactive bladder in younger adults, according to a study published online June 24 in Frontiers in Medicine.

Marta de-la-Plaza-San-Frutos, from Universidad Europea de Madrid in Spain, and colleagues examined potential side effects of COVID-19 vaccination on the urinary tract among 1,563 individuals (74.7 percent women and 27.3 percent men), aged 18 to 45 years, who completed an online survey.

The researchers found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the most frequently administered vaccine type (42.2 percent), and most individuals received three doses. The proportion of individuals who received the AstraZeneca vaccine and did not need to urinate in the night was significantly higher for women than men (59.1 versus 33.3 percent). Compared with those who received three vaccine doses, a higher proportion of those who received a single dose urinate five or more times during the night (2.2 versus 0.1 percent).

“Based on the results obtained in this study, monitoring and addressing urinary tract side effects of COVID-19 vaccination are important for vaccination programs to include the systematic collection of urinary tract side effect data, which will allow for ongoing evaluation of vaccine safety and efficacy,” the authors write. “Health care professionals should be alert to the possibility of patients experiencing urinary tract symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination.”

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