Higher estrogen levels may be associated with a lower risk of dying from COVID-19, researchers in Sweden say. The results of the study were published in the British Medical Journal.
The aim of the study, authored by scientists at Umeå University in Sweden, was to determine whether increasing estrogen levels with supplementation in postmenopausal women would translate into a reduction in mortality from coronavirus infection.
Almost from the beginning of the pandemic, researchers suspected that before the severe course of COVID-19, women were to some extent protected by female sex hormones - including estrogens - which have anti-inflammatory effects and stimulate the production of antibodies.
During the analysis, Swedish scientists looked at the data of 14,685 women who had had COVID-19 (before the vaccines appeared) and were postmenopausal, after which estrogen levels drop significantly …
227 women (2%) had previously diagnosed breast cancer and were taking estrogen-blocking drugs (an add-on therapy) to reduce the risk of the cancer coming back. 2,535 women (17%) used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to increase estrogen levels and relieve menopausal symptoms (group 2).
11 923 (81%) women did not use any medications and were a control group.
A comparative analysis of all the data found that compared to the group that did not use any supplements or medications, the likelihood of dying from COVID-19 was twice as high among women using estrogen blockers (Group 1), but by 54 percent. lower among women using HRT (group 2).
Researchers emphasize that this is an observational study and therefore it cannot be shown with certainty that it was estrogen supplementation that had an impact on the protective effect of patients with COVID-19 and hospitalized. However, as they wrote in a press release:
"This study shows the link between estrogen levels and death from COVID-19. Therefore, drugs that increase estrogen levels may play a role in therapeutic efforts to alleviate the severity of COVID-19 in postmenopausal women and should be investigated in randomized controlled trials. '