Doctors trial giving men with coronavirus oestrogen after finding disease kills half as many women
MEN suffering with coronavirus could be given female sex hormones – because women are much more likely to survive the illness.
Medics are wondering if oestrogen could be a useful tool to help battle Covid-19 after research from across the world shows women are less likely to become suddenly poorly.
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Two hospitals in America are now putting the theory to the test, giving men the hormone for a limited time to see if it boosts their immune systems, The New York Times reports.
In March, Italy’s public health research agency said that more than 70 per cent of the country’s deaths have been men.
The month before, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the fatality rate among men was 65 per cent higher than among women.
And in New York – one of the hardest-hit places in the world – more than 60 per cent of deaths have been among men.
WOMEN COULD HAVE STRONGER IMMUNE SYSTEMS
It is not yet know why women are less likely to die.
However, it’s been suggested that women naturally tend to have stronger immune systems.
They are also less likely to have long-term health conditions which can make patients more vulnerable.
Initial reports suggest the hormones in a woman’s body may reduce the number of receptors on the surfaces of cells that the virus uses to enter the body.
Oestrogen helps develop and regulate the female reproductive system.
HORMONE PATCHES FOR MEN
Dr Sharon Nachman, chief of the division of paediatric infectious diseases, told The Times that the trial enrolled its first participant last week.
She hopes to have preliminary results in the next couple of months.
Some 110 patients could end up being recruited for the trial in total.
Half will be given a hormone patch for a week.
The other half will be a control group. Researchers will see if the hormone helps reduce the disease’s severity.
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Sun Online reported that 72.9 per cent of those who have died are male.
Hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent infection – but multiple studies show that women are much more likely to wash their hands and use soap than men.
Coronavirus deaths in the UK have passed 21,000 after another 360 lost their lives in the lowest daily death toll in four weeks.
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