Estrogen and testosterone therapies may decrease severity of COVID-19

Sex hormones offer clues in fight against COVID-19

Doctors say a female's immune system typically fights pathogens better than a male's by producing more antibodies. This appears to be the case with this coronavirus, as well.

HOUSTON - Reseachers all over the world are trying to find out why COVID-19 affects some people worse than others, especially people over the age of 65. UTMB is looking into how our hormones could play a role.

COVID-19 is affecting people of all ages, but reports consistently show that older adults, especially males, have a higher chance of becoming seriously ill or dying from it.

Now researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are trying to figure out if sex hormones play a role.

"Previous research shows that the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone could help protect people from diseases that involve inflammation, which is what damages the lungs in COVID-19 infection.

So when people get older, their sex hormone levels decrease, and they have a greater chance of becoming more severely ill with COVID-19 infection," explains Dr. Rasha Al-Lami, Master of Clinical Science candidate in the UTMB Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health.

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Doctors say a female's immune system typically fights pathogens better than a male's by producing more antibodies. This appears to be the case with this coronavirus, as well.

"The hormone replacement therapy for estrogen and testosterone could cause potential and promising therapeutics strategies for COVID-19 patients, specifically in older adults, which unfortunately we see that the fatality rate in hospitalization is much higher in older individuals," says Dr. Al-Lami.

Researchers believe testosterone may have a protective anti-inflammatory effect in younger men, similar to the effect of estrogen in younger women.

"There are two ongoing clinical trials, one in New York and one in California, that are using increased progesterone and estrogen to both men and women to see if their outcome is any better. Once they receive, of course, those patients are COVID-19 patients in ICU. And those researchers are testing whether they have a better outcome when they are once they receive the hormones," states Dr. Al-Lami.

UTMB will be closely monitoring the result of those studies.

The latest findings can be found here.