women more affected than men

Women and men are not equal to COVVID LONG, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. Researchers from the Center for Health Sciences at the University of Texas, in San Antonio, in the United States, discovered that it had a 31 % higher risk of developing persistent symptoms following a sars- COV-2.

A 45 % higher risk in women aged 40 to 54 not menopausal

“These results show that patients and healthcare teams must take into account the risk differences of long covid according to birth sex, explains Dimpy Shah, one of the authors of the study, in a communiqué. Understanding these differences can help us to recognize and treat patients with long covid.”

To achieve this conclusion, the researchers followed 12,276 participants, all infected with the COVID-19 at least six months before their registration for the study. These have fulfilled questionnaires on their symptoms: discomfort after an effort, fatigue, brain fog, stunning, palpitations, loss or change of smell and/or taste, thirst, chronic cough, chest pain, breathlessness, snoring or Sleep apnea.

Results: Women had a 31 % higher risk of developing persistent symptoms after a SARS-COV-2 infection, compared to men. But three criteria – age, pregnancy and menopause – influence this risk even more.

Indeed, among participants aged 40 to 54, the risk of suffering from a long covid was 42 % higher in menopausal women and 45 % higher in non -menopausal.

Pregnant women less at risk of long covid

During their calculations, scientists chose to integrate and then exclude pregnant women. Thus, they observed that the over-risk increased when they were not taken into account. “”We know that sex hormones modulate immune responses ”write the authors in the study to explain that pregnant women are less affected by the Long Cavid.

According to health insurance, we speak of a long covid when one or more symptoms persist at least four weeks after the start of COVVI-19 infection.