Originally published June 26, 2023 12:06 pm PDT
A peer-reviewed journal entry published on Monday in Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology confirmed Lipschütz vulvar ulcers were linked to both coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccines.
Lipschütz ulcers, alternatively referred to as acute genital ulceration or ulcus vulvae acutum, manifest as a rare and often overlooked condition. The disease is characterized by the sudden emergence of very painful and necrotic (dead or dying tissue) ulcers in the vulva or lower vagina.
The study authors carried out a literature review to investigate the possible association between COVID-19 or immunization against SARS-CoV-2 and genital ulcers.
They looked at eighteen articles providing “information on 33 patients 15 (14–24) years of age (median and interquartile range), who experienced a total of 39 episodes of Lipschütz ulcer temporally associated with COVID-19 (N = 18) or an immunization against SARS-CoV-2 (N = 21).”
The authors reason that COVID vaccines and the virus itself are “plausible triggers of Lipschütz genital ulcer.”
However, they specify that vaccines were “more frequently” linked to the disease than the virus.
“Most cases of Lipschütz ulcer included in this analysis were induced by a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers confirm.
Eighteen episodes were associated with COVID-19, while 21 were associated with an immunization against SARS-CoV-2, according to the study.
The authors noted how most immunization-associated cases were observed among patients who took Pfizer’s vaccine formulation.
They highlight how Lipschütz ulcers have “never been reported to be temporally associated with other vaccines.”
Some patients were prescribed corticosteroids, and the disease remitted on average after 14 days.
When patients present with vulvar ulcer, medical practitioners “should give due consideration” to the possible links to COVID shots or the virus itself, the study authors conclude.
“Finally, forthcoming investigations pertaining to novel coronavirus vaccines ought to examine the incidence of vulvar ulcer in the female population,” they write.
Also on Monday, Dr. James Thorp, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and maternal-fetal medicine physician, alerted his Twitter followers that COVID vaccines have been tied to 516 cases of genital ulcerations in the two and a half years since the drug was first introduced.
He cited data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
By comparison, 199 cases have been linked to influenza vaccines across more than 32 years, and “199 Cases reported in CDC FDA for 32.5 years of ALL OTHER VACCINES except COVID-19.”
Read the Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology study below:
