<
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/long-covid-rates-higher-women-evidence-grows-2025a1000hkl>
"When Brazilian scientist Letícia Soares contracted COVID-19 in April 2020, she
was in the final stretch of her postdoctoral studies in disease ecology at a
Canadian university. By August, she was bedbound.
What began as piercing migraines quickly escalated into a cascade of long COVID
symptoms — gastrointestinal distress, sleeplessness, joint and muscle pain, and
crushing fatigue. For Soares and many other women with long COVID, it also
included sudden menstrual changes that exacerbated her other symptoms.
“It just baffled me,” said Soares, now 40. “It was debilitating.”
Before COVID, she had a stable, predictable cycle while using a hormonal IUD —
light cramping, mild abdominal swelling, and consistent, manageable bleeding.
Then, after her infection, her period disappeared entirely. A couple of years
later, the pattern reversed: prolonged, heavy bleeding returned, compounding
her long COVID symptoms and triggering severe crashes from post-exertional
malaise — one of the hallmarks of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue
syndrome (ME/CFS), a condition linked to post-viral illness.
Cases like Soares’s are leading scientists to spend more time trying to
understand the biologic sex disparity in chronic illnesses such as long COVID
that initially had all but been ignored. New research from the National
Institutes of Health RECOVER initiative, the largest observational study to
date, confirms what many have long suspected: Women face a significantly higher
risk of developing long COVID than men. While men are more likely to experience
severe acute illness and higher mortality, growing evidence suggests women are
more vulnerable to chronic symptoms.
Published in
JAMA Network Open, the study analyzed data from over 12,200
participants who had been infected by COVID between 2021 and 2024. Even after
adjusting for clinical and demographic factors, women had a 31%-44% higher
likelihood of developing long COVID than men. The risk was especially
pronounced among nonpregnant, nonmenopausal participants.
This study is the first to examine risk across different groups assigned women
at birth, revealing that age, pregnancy, and menopause all play a role in long
COVID likelihood, said lead author Dimpy Shah, MD, PhD, assistant professor of
population health sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at
San Antonio. “That is a very novel finding.”"
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: July 3, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-july-3-133203780
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
