It has been found that women are more likely to suffer from “long COVID” and tend to have a completely different set of symptoms than men.
New research found that women were 22% more likely than men to suffer from the prolonged form of the disease, where symptoms in some cases have persisted for two years.
An analysis of 35 publications on long COVID, with data from about 1.3 million patients, found that “patients were much more likely to suffer from mood disorders such as depression, hearing symptoms, nose and throat, musculoskeletal pain and respiratory symptoms “.
Male patients, on the other hand, were more likely to suffer from endocrine disorders, that is, diabetes caused by COVID and disorders that affect the kidneys.
These findings further complicate our understanding of “long covid”: it appears to function as two different diseases. This could inform more effective treatments.
As the study’s authors, from Johnson & Johnson’s office of the women’s medical director of health, advise in words: “Knowledge about the fundamental sex differences that underpin clinical manifestations, disease progression and the health outcomes of COVID-19 is crucial for the rational identification and design of effective therapies and public health interventions that are inclusive and sensitive to the possible needs for differential treatment of both sexes. ”
Why is this happening?
About a year after the pandemic, as COVID-19 vaccines entered millions of arms, women reported more side effects.
On the other hand, they tend to produce more antibodies and a reasonable assumption that they will enjoy longer protection than men.
A 2021 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) examined safety data for the first 13.7 million vaccines against COVID-19 administered in the U.S. and found that 79.1% of people who reported side effects were women.
Because? Because women are built to have stronger immune responses than men.
However, as the authors suggest, this stronger immune response is likely to cause sex differences in “long covid” syndrome.
“Women mount faster and more robust innate and adaptive immune responses, which can protect them from initial infection and severity,” the authors write.
“However, this same difference may make women more vulnerable to prolonged autoimmune diseases.”
The trend could have been picked up earlier
The researchers say there were red flags about that there were differences in how the disease progressed in both men and women.
They say “many studies have examined sex differences in hospitalization, ICU admission, ventilation support, and mortality.”
But research into the specific conditions the virus causes and its long-term damage to the body “has been little studied when it comes to sex.”
On the one hand, health workers and researchers have been overwhelmed by the complexity of COVID-19 and the rate of forest fire infection.
On the other hand, sex differences in the results “have been reported during previous coronavirus outbreaks.”
The authors say differences in outcomes between women and men infected with SARS-CoV-2 “could have been predicted.”