Men and women suffer different symptoms when they contract Covid, which affects their skin, heart and breathing in different ways
- Men have a greater increase in skin temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate
- This could be why 100,000 more men died of Covid than women in the US
- READ MORE: German man, 62, claims to have had 217 Covid injections
Men and women experience different symptoms when infected with Covid, a study suggests.
Researchers studied dozens of people before, during and after contracting the virus, measuring multiple vital health signs using a wearable medical device.
The results showed that men’s skin temperature became warmer, their heart rate increased and their breathing became faster.
The researchers don’t know exactly why this happened, but suggested it could be due to a stronger white blood cell response in women compared to male Covid patients.
During the pandemic, more men were hospitalized with the virus and died than women.
The researchers suggested that the sex-specific responses to Covid may be linked to the higher death and hospitalization rates seen in male Covid patients
Men showed greater increases in skin temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate than women, as well as greater decreases in heart rate variability in men compared to women during the symptomatic period. Men’s respiratory rate and heart rate also remained at significantly higher levels during the recovery period compared to their female peers
As of September 2023, approximately 629,728 men had died from Covid in the US, compared to 517,046 women.
Researchers from the private university in the Principality of Liechtenstein collected data on 1,163 people who used the wearable medical device Ava – an FDA-approved wrist-worn tracker primarily used to monitor women’s fertility.
During the study period between 2020 and 2021, more than 1.5 million hours of physiological data were recorded and analyzed.
During that time, 127 participants tested positive for Covid.
About 82 Covid patients had sufficient data quality from the Ava app to include in the analysis: 56 women and 26 men.
In addition to the observed increases, the data also showed that male participants’ breathing and heart rate remained at significantly higher levels during the recovery period than those of their female peers.
Researchers also observed a greater decrease in heart rate variability in men compared to women during Covid infection, meaning there was less variation in the time between each heartbeat.
Low heart rate variability can be a sign of current or future health problems because it shows that your body is not adapting well to changes.
Separate research has shown that women are more likely to experience persistent symptoms such as breathing difficulties and fatigue several months after the acute phase of the disease.
Although the study controlled for BMI, age, high blood pressure, and alcohol and drug use, it could not account for hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle in female participants, which could affect the results.
The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE.