“Letter to Editor”Should women postpone childbearing during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Abstract

It is not clear whether women can decide to become pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic or whether they are at risk, because examining the long-term consequences of the virus, especially in the first months of pregnancy, requires further time and research. The COVID19 virus has not been found in the semen and testicles of men infected with the virus in the acute phase or during the recovery period, so it is unlikely that the disease will be transmitted sexually. However, it has been reported that the male reproductive system is vulnerable to the infection, and significant changes have been observed in the sex hormones of patients with COVID-19, suggesting damage to gonadal function. Therefore, young men who have recovered from COVID-19 and are interested in having children should receive counseling when deciding to have children. Due to damage to cellular immunity and physiological changes, pregnant women are susceptible to respiratory diseases and are more likely to develop severe pneumonia. Pregnant women may be at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease. To reduce severe COVID-19 disease, pregnant women should be aware of the potential risks of the severe form of the disease. Therefore, the need to prevent COVID-19 in pregnant women should be emphasized, and potential barriers to these measures should be identified. However, a systematic review study found that pregnant women with COVID-19 had milder symptoms than the general population, and that despite the symptoms of viral pneumonia, their RT-PCR tests may be negative. Pregnant women with COVID-19 have a higher prevalence of preterm labor, low birth weight, cesarean delivery, and hospitalization in the NICU than in the general population. In reproductive-aged women with COVID-19 infection, pregnancy has been associated with increased risk of hospitalization in the intensive care unit and mechanical ventilation, but has not increased the risk of death. Although most mothers have been discharged from the hospital without any serious complications, severe maternal morbidity, multiple maternal deaths, and prenatal deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported. The possibility of vertical transmission of the virus to the fetus has not been ruled out, and therefore careful monitoring of pregnancy in cases of COVID-19 and measures to prevent neonatal infection are essential. Vertical transmission has been reported in several cases of maternal infection around delivery in the third trimester, suggesting fetal infection but it is not common. In the at risk newborns, neonatal outcomes such as preterm labor or placental abruption have been well reported in the absence of other problems. Little is known about the consequences of maternal infection in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Fever or hyperthermia during the first trimester of pregnancy, when organogenesis occurs, may be an environmental risk factor for fetal abnormalities, especially