Doctors are less likely to observe severe coronavirus infections in women than in men. A team of researchers has now investigated the role of the hormone estrogen.
- Covid-19 can equally affect men and women. But in men, lung disease is more often life-threatening.
- Doctors discuss a better immune system in women and higher estrogen levels as the cause.
- A factor that speaks in favor of the latter: women going through menopause increase the risk of severe Covid-19 courses *.
It has been shown worldwide that men and women are equally likely to be infected with the coronavirus: In men, however, Covid-19 is more fatal. The distribution of death rates is one third to two thirds, as reported by the Pharmazeutische Zeitung (PZ). “We see that here in Germany too. We have a lot of male patients ", quoted the PZ Professor Dr. Clemens Wendtner, chief physician at the Infectious Disease Clinic at Munich Clinic Schwabing. Why men more often suffer a severe course has not yet been conclusively clarified. One possible explanation: women lead healthier lifestyles that make them less prone to chronic conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes- which in turn are considered Covid 19 risk factors. Another possible cause: men often don't like going to the doctor - and can thus spread a Covid 19 infection. The higher estrogen level in women is also discussed by researchers as a possible protective factor.
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High estrogen levels lower the risk of a fatal course of Covid-19
If women go through menopause, their estrogen level drops - and at the same time the risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19 increases. British researchers at King's College London looked into this connection in a recent study. The conclusion of the scientists after analyzing the data of more than 500,000 British women of different ages: The falling estrogen level in middle-aged women means that the Covid-19 symptoms appear much more difficult in the course of the disease than in other patients. A main cause is less estrogen in the body - a sex hormone that, among other things, regulates the menstrual cycle.
Women between 18 and 45 years of age who regularly took the birth control pill reported rather mild Covid 19 symptoms in the study. Women of this age who were on hormone replacement therapy for menopausal symptoms also rarely suffered from severe coronavirus infections. Older menopausal women, on the other hand, reported more severe courses of Covid-19 and also had to be treated more often in hospital. The thesis of the British researchers: The contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy could have a protective effect and protect women from severe Covid-19 . However, taking such preparations also increases the risk of thrombosis and the psyche can also suffer when women take hormones. The extent to which the positive effects of such drugs outweigh the health risks still needs to be researched, according to the study leaders in their study published in the journal medRxiv. (jg) * Merkur.de belongs to the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network . Sources: www.rki.de, www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de
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