The Travel Doctor
Traveller's medical & vaccination centre
Ask The Travel Doctor-TMVC
Q: My wife and I are to move to Asia to work. My wife is about to begin IVF treatment and we are wondering whether she can have the required vaccinations or whether we need to postpone IVF.
A: There are a number of vaccinations that are generally recommended for living in Asia, none live, and they are all known to be safe to be administered during pregnancy if required.
However any vaccine, and particularly multiple vaccines given at the same time, can cause immune reactions and for women undergoing IVF, a time when we want everything to be just right, we would try to avoid giving the vaccines a week before and a month after treatments if we can avoid it. While there is no specific known problem, we would just want everything to be optimal.
Vaccines for Asia can be administered satisfactorily within about 1 month, and more complex vaccines such as rabies course could be deferred till after arrival in Indonesia if required. So deferring IVF first treatment for a few weeks might be a sensible plan.
Dr Tony
Disclaimer: Information provided in this health column is of a general nature & should not replace specific advice from your own personal Travel doctor-TMVC consultation.
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