Less Manly Men Are More Likely To Die From COVID-19, German Hospital Finds

A recent study suggests men with a low level of testosterone are more likely to succumb to COVID-19.

The study was conducted at a German hospital on 45 male patients of COVID-19 and it reveals the important role testosterone plays in determining how critical the victim is when they are infected.

This male s.e.x hormone is in charge of regulating the body’s immune system and when its level is too low, the defending system can go haywire under the effect of COVID-19. This phenomenon is called cytokine storm, in which the immune control works with no control trying to kill the foreign pathogen.

If the cytokine storm is left unchecked, it can eventually kill the body.

The researchers studied 45 confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf ICU. Among the subjects, 10 are female and the rest are male. Three women and nine men later died of the disease.

When the patients were brought into the ICU, their hormone levels were recorded before doctors conducted any invasive procedures.

Their samples were tested for 12 hormones, including dihydrotestosterone and testosterone, which governs the body’s responses to viral infections. 2/3 of the male patients dent to the German hospital have a low level of testosterone while most of the female showed an elevated level of this hormone.

In men, too little testosterone means the immune response is not under control, while in women, a high level of this hormone is linked to inflammatory response.

According to Professor Gülsah Gabriel of Hamburg-based Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, most of the male patients participated in this study have a low level of male sex hormone and the majority of those who died also show the same low level of testosterone.

When human bodies notice SARS-CoV-2 presence, they will produce a large amount of cytokines, the chemicals that will fight the pathogen. They will also send immune cells to defend the bodies from the invaders.

However, the problem with this mechanism in COVID-19 patients is that their immune system responses too much, leading to what scientists call a cytokine storm. What happens after the aggressive response has been triggered is severe lung failure and death.

As stated by Ali Daneshkhah, a researcher at Northwestern University, cytokine storms seem to be the major cause of death, not damage caused by COVID-19. Professor Gabriel explained if men’s level of testosterone is normal, they are less likely to develop a cytokine storm and have a higher chance of surviving the disease.

Their study also reveals that men infected with COVID-19 are more likely to show severe symptoms and die from it than women, regardless of age. The scientists also emphasized the importance of finding out why men are more likely to die.

Another research involving Professor Gabriel shows when infected with H7N9 (Avian influenza A), women are also less likely to succumb to the disease than men.

These two diseases share some common traits, including the fact that they are zoonotic, meaning they jump from animals to humans, and they trigger cytokine storm, turning the immune system against the body.

>>> Bangalore-Based Engineer Hacked Aarogya Setu App To Appear Safe At All Times