Some doctors think women are at a reduced risk of getting seriously ill. But no one is sure why
Photo: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Blend Images LLC/Getty Images Though it’s not yet clear why, women around the world have proved to be less likely to get seriously sick with the novel coronavirus — or why they’re far more likely to survive it than men. The difference in some contexts is stark: Dr. Sara Ghandehari, a pulmonologist and intensive-care physician at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told the New York Times that 75% of the hospital’s ICU and ventilator patients are men.
Though there are some rare and scary exceptions, pregnant women especially — though usually immunocompromised and therefore thought to be higher-risk — tend to get very mild cases of the coronavirus. Scientists have some theories they hope might support these differences in outcome by sex, but no one is sure of anything just yet.
Doctors in New York and Los Angeles have begun trials to evaluate this theory, testing the use of estrogen or progesterone in boosting patients’ immunity.Experts who study sex differences in immunity caution that hormones may not provide the miracle drug we’re hoping for, citing the better health outcomes even among elderly women, who have far lower levels of estrogen and progesterone after menopause.
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