COVID-19 and the surge in Decidual Cast Shedding

“Background: The purpose of this study is to report on the unprecedented rise in decidual cast shedding (DCS) that occurred in 2021. DCS is historically a rare gynecological event, with less than 40 cases reported in the medical literature over the last 109 years. Previous journal articles on DCS were usually case studies; population prevalence data is non-existent.

Methods: The MyCycleStory SM survey was distributed via social media from May 16th, 2021, through December 31, 2021. The total sample size for analysis was 6049 with 89.1% of the participants responding within the first 3.5 months of the 7.5 months duration of the study. In parallel to the survey study, a Google Trends search was completed for search frequencies of relevant keyword terms including “decidual cast” and “decidual cast covid vaccine.”

Results: In the survey, 292 women (4.83 % of the sample) reported having experienced DCS. The mean age of these predominantly non-Hispanic white women was 36.1 ± 0.5 (SEM) years. Eleven percent were taking hormonal contraceptives, 94.3% considered themselves healthy and 96.2% reported that menstrual irregularities started in 2021. According to Google metadata, search terms for "decidual cast shedding" substantially increased during the months of April, May, and June 2021. These peaks in searches represented a 2000% increase over the first quarter of 2021.

Conclusions: There was a significant increase in self-reported DCS in the latter part of 2021 compared to all pre-pandemic cases…

Discussion: The most striking finding of this study is the remarkable incidence of decidual cast shedding (DCS) among the survey respondents, which identified 292 respondents noting a DCS event over 7.5 months in 2021. In comparison, all previously published medical literature spanning 109 years describes less than 40 cases. Undoubtedly, this is a significant surge in DCS events…

Here, we speculate on possible causes of this DCS phenomenon. One hypothesis is that the COVID-19 vaccine interrupts the complex balance of ovulation orchestrated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis and thus produces anovulatory bleeding disorders. It is known from COVID-19 mRNA vaccine documents that there is concentration of the nanolipid particles and the mRNA cargo in the ovaries. This produces significant inflammatory response in the ovaries and could contribute to menstrual abnormalities, although there are many other potential mechanisms that could be involved.

COVID-19 vaccination is associated with both micro- and macro-arterial and venous thromboembolism. An unusual clotting process associated with fibrin deposition appears as a white ‘tissue-like’ material in vaccine recipients, and embalmers have observed very extensive and durable white clots that are removed post-mortem in the embalming process. Figure 6 depicts multiple clots extracted intact by an embalmer who describes the blood as ‘abnormally thickened and sticky’ and difficult to wipe off gloves or the embalming table. He further notes that the extracted blood clots are very durable and difficult to break up. Embalmers have apparently never seen this phenomenon prior to the pandemic. We speculate that one potential explanation of the surge in reports of decidual cast shedding could represent a similar appearing tissue-like substance that is composed of fibrin-laden clot rather than a simple decidual cast.”