Compared to men with the same condition, adult women experience more severe symptoms from long COVID, according to new research from neurologists at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois.
For their study, the authors examined data from more than 2,300 patients who were treated at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro COVID-19 Clinic. About two-thirds of these patients were women. Compared to male patients, women were more likely to experience neurological symptoms (such as numbness or tingling, dizziness, headaches, pain, brain fog, and distortions to their sense of taste or smell), as well as non-neurological symptoms (such as fatigue, chest pain, dysautonomia, and gastrointestinal issues). Additionally, women who were treated for long COVID scored lower in a task of attention on a National Institutes of Health cognitive test.
“While the acute phase of the COVID pandemic may be forgotten by some, Long COVID continues to impact the health and quality of life of many survivors, representing an important public health concern,” the authors write. “As memory of the pandemic fades, dismissal and minimization of symptoms, with a risk of misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis, may unfortunately predominantly affect females. Indeed, young and middle-aged females are populations that have already suffered from gender inequity in health care recognition. Consequently, this situation may cause a reinforcement of gender bias in medicine.”