COVID-19 Vaccines in Pregnancy

Our journal’s first edition of the year 2021 brings to the forefront the global health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires effective prevention strategies and therapeutic approaches, encouraging physicians to correctly inform, counsel and support patients who are pregnant, are planning to become pregnant, are breastfeeding or are planning to breastfeed, about the COVID-19 vaccines. Observational studies have shown that pregnant patients have an increased risk of severe illness, with intensive care unit admissions, need for mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, as well as adverse pregnancy course, with a high risk of preterm birth and postpartum complications. At present, both Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommend that COVID-19 vaccines should not be refused to pregnant patients who meet the criteria for vaccination.

In another paper, we see the outcome in pregnant women associating autoimmune thyroiditis and COVID-19, pointing out that coronavirus spectrum infections (especially with SARS-CoV-2) particularly influence the thyroid axis, with both thyrotoxicosis as well as suppression of thyroid function, thus determining severe pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.

The field of using imaging investigations, either as a method of diagnosis or for therapeutic purposes, in a wide range of acute or chronic diseases, has been a controversial subject in pregnant women, the practitioners being reluctant to use these methods due to unfavourable risk/benefit trade-offs. Therefore, we pre­sent a paper in which the autors aim to update the fetal radiation exposure during different radiological investigations procedures, as well as the main consequences of radia­tion exposure, depending on gestational age, highlighting that in a justified medical situation, an exposure under 50 mGy, used by the standard radio­logy procedures, does not represent a risk for the fetus.

In the gynecology section, it is presented a study which aimes at identifying and evaluating the psycho­emotional impact on women who are diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy and need psychological counseling after such an experience.

Moving on, as endometriosis is a common cause of infertility, the most frequent question that arises is whether fertility preservation is a necessity be­fore endometriosis surgical treatment. The answer to this question is presented in a review paper which concludes that more clinical data and economic analyses are needed in order to recommend fertility preservation as a routine procedure for all women before undergoing surgical treatment for endometriosis.

Maybe one of the most interesting  and rare cases presented so far is that of the conjoined twins, such as those diagnosed and monitored in Bucharest. Conjoined twins are a rare complica­tion of a monoamniotic monochorionic pregnancy, usually defined by two indivi­duals who share one or more organs and parts of their anatomy.

In the end, it is our great pleasure to invite all of you to register for two upcoming events in obstetrics, gynecology and perinatology: Ginecologia.ro 2021 Forum – Hot Topics in Obstetrics and Gynecology will take place between 25 and 26 March 2021, and Perinatologia 2021 Forum – Hot Topics in Perinatology will take place between 26 and 27 March 2021, both of them being virtual meetings.