scholarly journals Estrogen and COVID-19 symptoms: associations in women from the COVID Symptom Study

Author(s):  
Ricardo Costeira ◽  
Karla A Lee ◽  
Benjamin Murray ◽  
Colette Christiansen ◽  
Juan Castillo-Fernandez ◽  
...  

Background: Men and older women have been shown to be at higher risk of adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Animal model studies of SARS-CoV and MERS suggest that the age and sex difference in COVID-19 symptom severity may be due to a protective effect of the female sex hormone estrogen. Females have shown an ability to mount a stronger immune response to a variety of viral infections because of more robust humoral and cellular immune responses. Objectives: We sought to determine whether COVID-19 positivity increases in women entering menopause. We also aimed to identify whether premenopausal women taking exogenous hormones in the form of the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP) and post-menopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have lower predicted rates of COVID-19, using our published symptom-based model. Design: The COVID Symptom Study developed by Kings College London and Zoe Global Limited was launched in the UK on 24th March 2020. It captured self-reported information related to COVID-19 symptoms. Data used for this study included records collected between 7th May - 15th June 2020. Main outcome measures: We investigated links between COVID-19 rates and 1) menopausal status, 2) COCP use and 3) HRT use, using symptom-based predicted COVID-19, tested COVID-19, and disease severity based on requirement for hospital attendance or respiratory support. Participants: Female users of the COVID Symptom Tracker Application in the UK, including 152,637 women for menopause status, 295,689 for COCP use, and 151,193 for HRT use. Analyses were adjusted for age, smoking and BMI. Results: Post-menopausal women aged 40-60 years had a higher rate of predicted COVID (P=0.003) and a corresponding range of symptoms, with consistent, but not significant trends observed for tested COVID-19 and disease severity. Women aged 18-45 years taking COCP had a significantly lower predicted COVID-19 (P=8.03E-05), with a reduction in hospital attendance (P=0.023). Post-menopausal women using HRT or hormonal therapies did not exhibit consistent associations, including increased rates of predicted COVID-19 (P=2.22E-05) for HRT users alone. Conclusions: Our findings support a protective effect of estrogen on COVID-19, based on positive association between predicted COVID-19 and menopausal status, and a negative association with COCP use. HRT use was positively associated with COVID-19 symptoms; however, the results should be considered with caution due to lack of data on HRT type, route of administration, duration of treatment, and potential comorbidities. Trial registration: The App Ethics has been approved by KCL ethics Committee REMAS ID 18210, review reference LRS-19/20-18210

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Costeira ◽  
Karla A. Lee ◽  
Benjamin Murray ◽  
Colette Christiansen ◽  
Juan Castillo-Fernandez ◽  
...  

It has been widely observed that adult men of all ages are at higher risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19 when compared with women. This study aimed to investigate the association of COVID-19 positivity and severity with estrogen exposure in women, in a population based matched cohort study of female users of the COVID Symptom Study application in the UK. Analyses included 152,637 women for menopausal status, 295,689 women for exogenous estrogen intake in the form of the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), and 151,193 menopausal women for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Data were collected using the COVID Symptom Study in May-June 2020. Analyses investigated associations between predicted or tested COVID-19 status and menopausal status, COCP use, and HRT use, adjusting for age, smoking and BMI, with follow-up age sensitivity analysis, and validation in a subset of participants from the TwinsUK cohort. Menopausal women had higher rates of predicted COVID-19 (P = 0.003). COCP-users had lower rates of predicted COVID-19 (P = 8.03E-05), with reduction in hospital attendance (P = 0.023). Menopausal women using HRT or hormonal therapies did not exhibit consistent associations, including increased rates of predicted COVID-19 (P = 2.22E-05) for HRT users alone. The findings support a protective effect of estrogen exposure on COVID-19, based on positive association between predicted COVID-19 with menopausal status, and negative association with COCP use. HRT use was positively associated with COVID-19, but the results should be considered with caution due to lack of data on HRT type, route of administration, duration of treatment, and potential unaccounted for confounders and comorbidities.


2008 ◽  
Vol 122 (7) ◽  
pp. 707-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
D C Wild ◽  
C M Philpott ◽  
C R Wolstenholme ◽  
G E Murty

AbstractBackground:Previous studies have suggested that the female menstrual cycle, pregnancy and the oral contraceptive pill have an effect upon nasal physiology.Objectives:This study aimed to assess the effects upon nasal physiology of female hormone replacement therapy in post-menopausal women. This has not been previously studied.Methods:Twenty post-menopausal women (age range 36 to 70 years; mean age 57.0 years) underwent measurements of the nasal airway, including anterior rhinoscopy, peak nasal inspiratory flow rate, acoustic rhinometry, anterior rhinomanometry, mucociliary clearance time and rhinitis quality of life questionnaire. Measurements of nasal patency were recorded prior to commencing hormone replacement therapy and at a time point 77–195 days (mean 101.9 days) following commencement.Results:There was no statistical difference found for any of the variables, using the paired t-test (p > 0.05 for all).Conclusions:Female hormone replacement therapy has no discernable effect upon nasal physiology and should not be considered a cause of rhinitic symptoms.


Author(s):  
Sandar Tin Tin ◽  
Gillian K. Reeves ◽  
Timothy J. Key

Abstract Background Some endogenous hormones have been associated with breast cancer risk, but the nature of these relationships is not fully understood. Methods UK Biobank was used. Hormone concentrations were measured in serum collected in 2006–2010, and in a repeat subsample (N ~ 5000) in 2012–13. Incident cancers were identified through data linkage. Cox regression models were used, and hazard ratios (HRs) corrected for regression dilution bias. Results Among 30,565 pre-menopausal and 133,294 post-menopausal women, 527 and 2,997, respectively, were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during a median follow-up of 7.1 years. Cancer risk was positively associated with testosterone in post-menopausal women (HR per 0.5 nmol/L increment: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.23) but not in pre-menopausal women (pheterogeneity = 0.03), and with IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) (HR per 5 nmol/L increment: 1.18; 1.02, 1.35 (pre-menopausal) and 1.07; 1.01, 1.12 (post-menopausal); pheterogeneity = 0.2), and inversely associated with SHBG (sex hormone-binding globulin) (HR per 30 nmol/L increment: 0.96; 0.79, 1.15 (pre-menopausal) and 0.89; 0.84, 0.94 (post-menopausal); pheterogeneity = 0.4). Oestradiol, assessed only in pre-menopausal women, was not associated with risk, but there were study limitations for this hormone. Conclusions This study confirms associations of testosterone, IGF-1 and SHBG with breast cancer risk, with heterogeneity by menopausal status for testosterone.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M Olsen ◽  
Christina M Nagle ◽  
David C Whiteman ◽  
Roberta Ness ◽  
Celeste Leigh Pearce ◽  
...  

Whilst previous studies have reported that higher BMI increases a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer, associations for the different histological subtypes have not been well defined. As the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically, and classification of ovarian histology has improved in the last decade, we sought to examine the association in a pooled analysis of recent studies participating in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. We evaluated the association between BMI (recent, maximum and in young adulthood) and ovarian cancer risk using original data from 15 case–control studies (13 548 cases and 17 913 controls). We combined study-specific adjusted odds ratios (ORs) using a random-effects model. We further examined the associations by histological subtype, menopausal status and post-menopausal hormone use. High BMI (all time-points) was associated with increased risk. This was most pronounced for borderline serous (recent BMI: pooled OR=1.24 per 5 kg/m2; 95% CI 1.18–1.30), invasive endometrioid (1.17; 1.11–1.23) and invasive mucinous (1.19; 1.06–1.32) tumours. There was no association with serous invasive cancer overall (0.98; 0.94–1.02), but increased risks for low-grade serous invasive tumours (1.13, 1.03–1.25) and in pre-menopausal women (1.11; 1.04–1.18). Among post-menopausal women, the associations did not differ between hormone replacement therapy users and non-users. Whilst obesity appears to increase risk of the less common histological subtypes of ovarian cancer, it does not increase risk of high-grade invasive serous cancers, and reducing BMI is therefore unlikely to prevent the majority of ovarian cancer deaths. Other modifiable factors must be identified to control this disease.


2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (8) ◽  
pp. 863-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Ma ◽  
Huandong Lin ◽  
Yu Hu ◽  
Xiaoming Li ◽  
Wanyuan He ◽  
...  

AbstractAssociations between ferritin and insulin sensitivity have been described in recent studies. The possible association showed conflicting results by sex and menopausal status. We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional association of ferritin levels with insulin resistance and β-cell function. A total of 2518 participants (1033 men, 235 pre-menopausal women and 1250 post-menopausal women) were enrolled from the Changfeng Study. A standard interview was conducted, as well as anthropometric measurements and laboratory analyses, for each participant. The serum ferritin level was measured using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Insulin resistance and β-cell function indices were derived from a homeostasis model assessment. The results showed that the serum ferritin levels were 250·4 (sd 165·2), 94·6 (sd 82·0) and 179·8 (sd 126·6) ng/ml in the men, pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women, respectively. In fully adjusted models (adjusting for age, current smoking, BMI, waist:hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, TAG, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, log urine albumin:creatinine ratio, leucocytes, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase), serum ferritin concentrations are significantly associated with insulin resistance in men and post-menopausal females, and the null association was observed in pre-menopausal females. Interestingly, an increased β-cell function associated with higher ferritin was observed in post-menopausal participants, but not in male participants. In conclusion, these results suggested that elevated serum ferritin levels were associated with surrogate measures of insulin resistance among the middle-aged and elderly male and post-menopausal women, but not in pre-menopausal women.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadia Khanduker ◽  
Rumana Ahmed ◽  
Mafruha Nazneen ◽  
Anawarul Alam ◽  
Farhana Khondokar

Background: Menopausal health in our environment has received little attention. As a independent risk factor for dyslipidemia, the degree and pattern of derangement, though difficult to assess may adversely affect the cardiovascular health of our women.Objectives: To estimate the serum lipid profile and the atherogenic index of plasma among the pre and post- menopausal women.Materials and Methods: After an overnight fasting blood samples were collected from a group of 339 women, 140 premenopausal aged between 25-50 years and 199 postmenopausal aged between 51-70 years. Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and HDL-cholesterol were estimated by enzymatic methods and LDL-cholesterol by established mathematical methods. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) were calculated by using the formula (logTG/HDL-C). Statistical analysis was carried out in the two groups using the unpaired t test. Results were expressed as mean±SD. P values <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.Results: There were statistically significant increase in serum TC (191.21±45.50 mg/dl), TG (185.83± 111.83 mg/dl) and LDL-C (118.71±38.48 mg/dl) in post-menopausal women. Their HDL-C level (38.67±10.00mg/dl) was significantly decreased. The calculated atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) was significantly higher (0.63±0.27) in post-menopausal women as compared to that in premenopausal women (0.50±0.29).Conclusion: Menopause leads to changes in lipid profile. By elevating LDL and the reduction of cardioprotective HDL is an indication that menopause is an independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease. These changes are caused by loss of cardio-protective effect of oestrogen.Anwer Khan Modern Medical College Journal Vol. 9, No. 1: Jan 2018, P 44-49


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document