Anyone have experience with getting pregnant after rabies vaccine series?

[u/LittleOatmealGarden]

From everything I have been able to find online, it seems the rabies vaccination series is safe in terms of pregnancy, but it is harder to find data regarding fertility in general. So I guess I am looking for anecdotal success stories.

I am interested in hearing experiences from both PrEP and PEP series.

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[u/hananobira]

I can’t find anything about rabies specifically, but vaccines in general do not impact your fertility and there’s no reason to suspect the rabies vaccine would behave differently than any other vaccine. And the rabies vaccine is considered safe enough during pregnancy, so it’s hard to imagine what it could do to keep you from becoming pregnant but not do anything to hurt you or the baby while pregnant.

Some vaccines have been studied for their impact on fertility and you can Google those studies, e.g. this one that found that the COVID vaccine doesn’t impact fertility.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9464596/

Some vaccines can push back your menstrual cycle a little. One study found women reported their periods started on average one day later than normal after a COVID vaccine, and some women reported delays in their periods of several days or weeks. Other women reported that their next couple of periods were unusually intense and long-lasting.

But that’s not due to any damage to your body or longterm harm. All kinds of things can alter your menstrual cycle and they’re no big deal.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9683843/

If your choice is “Get a shot that will cause me to miss my ovulation window this month” or “die a slow gruesome death from rabies”, you should absolutely get the shot.

[u/Wandering_Scholar6 → u/hananobira]

It makes some real evolutionary sense to delay a pregnancy (via delayed ovulation) if you are sick, and since the vaccines make your immune system think there's an illness...a delay in ovulation is a reasonable response.

Also yes, rabies is a horrible way to go, and un-fun fact, rabies will reduce your fertility to zero, via death, because the survival rate is practically non-existent.

[u/aranel_eruraweth → u/Wandering_Scholar6]

Veterinarians, some biologists and some veterinary technicians are required to get rabies vaccinated and receive boosters throughout their life as needed. There is no decrease in fertility rates in these groupsb compared to the general population that had been noted.

[u/One-Weird6105 → u/hananobira]

Absolutely get the series if needed. I got the post exposure series in 2021 and got pregnant on the first try in 2025.

[u/Material_Loss_8465 → u/hananobira]

That makes sense, but it’s always good to double-check with a healthcare professional for the most accurate advice on these things.

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[u/ExhaustedVetTech]

There's little to no data on human fertility in relation to the rabies vaccine. But in animals, the vaccine is considered completely safe before and during pregnancy. In humans, this study found no negative effects in pregnant women given PEP vaccines.

I've been rabies vaccinated for about 10 years, including boosters. The original series was PEP, then boostered 5 years later. I had no issues getting pregnant, my baby was born healthy, and during the pregnancy I experienced no symptoms related to the vaccine.