Oestrogen levels could protect older women from severe COVID-19
Tuesday February 15th 2022
High levels of oestrogen could help to protect older women from severe COVID-19 and death, suggests a Swedish study published today.
Research, published in *BMJ Open*, says women who have already gone through the menopause might benefit from supplemental hormone treatment to curb the severity of COVID-19.
Because women seem to have a lower risk of severe COVID-19 infection than men, even after accounting for potentially influential factors, the team, led by Umeå University Faculty of Medicine, compared the potential effects of boosting and reducing oestrogen levels on COVID-19 infection severity to see if oestrogen has a role in the gender discrepancy.
They used national data from the Swedish Public Health Agency, Statistics Sweden and the National Board of Health and Welfare and found 49,853 women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 between 4 February and 14 September 2020, 16,693 of whom were aged between 50 and 80.
The study sample included 14,685 women: 11,923 (81%) were used as the comparison group as they were not on any type of treatment and these were compared to a group with 2535 (17%) who were taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and 227 (2%) who were on oestrogen blocking drugs after having been previously diagnosed with breast cancer.
Compared with no oestrogen treatment, the crude odds of dying from COVID-19 were twice as high among women on oestrogen blockers, but 54% lower among women on HRT.
After accounting for potentially influential factors, the odds of dying from COVID-19 were 53% lower for women on HRT.
Age was significantly associated with the risk of dying from COVID-19, with each extra year associated with 15% greater odds, while every additional coexisting condition increased the odds of death by 13%.
Those with the lowest household incomes were nearly three times as likely to die as those with the highest.
Although this is an observational study, the researchers conclude: “This study shows an association between oestrogen levels and COVID-19 death. Consequently, drugs increasing oestrogen levels may have a role in therapeutic efforts to alleviate COVID-19 severity in postmenopausal women and could be studied in randomised control trials.”
Sund M, Fonseca-Rodríguez O, Josefsson A et al. Association between pharmaceutical modulation of oestrogen in postmenopausal women in Sweden and death due to COVID-19: a cohort study. *BMJ Open* 15 February 2022; doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053032
Tags: Elderly Health | Europe | Flu & Viruses | Women's Health & Gynaecology
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