women are better protected thanks to their sex hormones

Women and men are not equally affected by Covid-19. Immediately after the onset of the pandemic, epidemiological data showed that the virus affects more men than women. To explain this difference, Italian researchers put forward the idea that women respect barrier gestures better than men. A new study has come to give a scientific answer to this gap: female sex hormones and their anti-inflammatory properties that protect them from severe forms are at the origin of the difference between the sexes.

Pregnant women are better protected thanks to hormones

Estrogen, progesterone and allopregnanolone, the female sex hormones, have an anti-inflammatory role that acts on immune cells by stimulating the production of antibodies. Thanks to them, the respiratory cells are better protected and can inhibit the ACE2 receptor through which the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 enters the cells. American researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) published the results on November 8 in the journal Trends in endocrinology and metabolism.

These hormones also explain why pregnant women are better protected from Covid-19. “Hormones that help maintain pregnancy, such as progesterone, are 100 times more concentrated in the third trimester of pregnancy, details Graziano Pinna, professor of psychiatry at the UIC and lead author of the study. Estradiol, allopregnanolone and progesterone all have important anti-inflammatory functions and help restore the immune system. This suggests that pregnant women have become symptomatic … after giving birth to their babies due to the rapid decline in these hormones. The correlation was truly amazing “

Older people have fewer hormones

This better protection for pregnant women is confirmed by the figures. Based on data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US health officials, 51 of the 38,071 pregnant women who contracted the virus died. This represents a 0.13% mortality rate rising to 2% for those not expecting a child. “Pregnant women are 15 times less likely to die from Covid-19 than other women”, Graziano Pinna continues.

In addition to the explanation of the virus affecting women less severely, and also pregnant women, this would justify why older people are more affected by Covid-19. “This observation in pregnant women provides a significant scientific basis, not only as to why women are more protected than men, but also why the elderly are less protected than the young, because we know that the older you are, the lower yours are. hormones”, Concluded Graziano Pinna.