United States: The study under National Institutes of Health funding through the RECOVER research initiative demonstrated that women experience increased chances of developing long covid depending on their life stage and menopausal status.
More about the news
The research printed in January demonstrated women face 31 percent elevated long covid susceptibility levels compared to their male counterparts after acquiring coronavirus.
The risk level for acquiring long covid was highest among women in their early to mid-40s who maintained regular menstrual cycles since it was 45 percent higher than the risk for male counterparts of similar age.
According to Dimpy Shah, an assistant professor of population health sciences with the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the finding suggests that hormones involved in menopause, fertility, and pregnancy might play a major factor, and which might be protective factors against long COVID, the Washington Post reported.
The risk level of developing long-covid in women ages 18 to 39 and post-menopausal women ages 40 to 54 showed no differences with male participants in their corresponding age brackets.
What more are the experts stating?
The protective factors toward long covid may be explained by hormones that control menopause as well as fertility and pregnancy.
Estrogen quantities in women decrease when they undergo menopause, Shah added.
According to her, older adult women under 40 normally display elevated estrogen together with elevated progesterone levels, which help regulate body estrogen levels.
Researchers have not yet detailed how testosterone and estrogen influence the immune system response, the Washington Post reported.
The excessive presence of estrogen within the body appears to produce prolonged immune system reactions that could explain why females develop autoimmune diseases at double the rates of males.
Research on how hormone levels influence long covid development requires further investigation, according to Shah, who also acknowledges that hormones might not fully account for enduring covid symptoms among female patients.