COVID-19 is more likely to cause long-term effects in women than in males, according to a recent study. 1.3 million individuals’ medical records were evaluated by researchers from Johnson & Johnson’s Chief Medical Officer for Women’s Health Office. According to the findings, which were published in the journal Current Medical Research and Opinion on Tuesday, women had a 22% higher risk of developing lengthy COVID than men.
The discovery of effective medicines and public health initiatives that are inclusive and attentive to the possible varied treatment requirements of both sexes is critical to understanding COVID-19’s core sex differences. The term “long COVID” refers to people who have recovered from the illness but continue to have symptoms for longer than four weeks. These symptoms may last for months or even years in some people. There is a wide range of lasting symptoms that patients might suffer from including exhaustion and trouble breathing; headaches; brain fog; joint and muscular pain; as well as the loss of taste and smell. There are a number of ideas as to why some patients acquire long-term COVID, including lingering virus in the body, nerve damage produced by the virus, and the immune system being active after infection.
What did the study find?
Following four weeks of testing positive, the most prevalent symptoms for women were musculoskeletal aches and soreness; shortness of breath; and mental or mood problems including sadness, according to the research. Acute kidney damage (AKI) was more common in males than in women.
Males and females not only had distinct symptoms during the COVID-19 infection, but they also had varied symptoms following the establishment of long COVID. Women were more likely than males to have long-term symptoms such as tiredness, ENT, gastrointestinal, neurological, skin, and mental and/or mood issues over time. Long-term ENT and gastrointestinal issues were twice as common in women, and women were more than 60 percent more likely to suffer from these symptoms. The prevalence of renal and endocrine problems, such as diabetes, was much greater in males than in women.
There have been a number of research looking at the variations in COVID-19 hospitalization, ICU admission, and mortality by sex. There were more than 600,000 papers reviewed for this study, released between December 2019 and June 2021, but only 35 included information on the symptoms and lingering effects of COVID-19 in sufficient depth to comprehend how men and women may experience the condition differently.
