OLDER women who are receiving hormone replacement therapy are at significantly less risk of dying from Covid, according to new research.
Swedish scientists have revealed that women who are taking HRT were less likely to be wiped out by the virus.
Studies have shown that women have had a consistently lower death rate than men throughout the pandemic, with oestrogen understood to be playing a role in the difference.
Researchers monitored 2,500 women in their 60s who had been taking HRT, with most being menopausal, who tested positive for Covid during the first wave.
They then compared then to 12,000 women of the same age who had not been taking HRT, and 200 cancer survivors on oestrogen-blockers.
The group who were not taking oestrogen were half as likely to die compared to those who had been taking HRT.
Anyone who had been taking the blockers were discovered to be at double the risk of dying from the virus.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), followed patients who were admitted to hospital between February and September 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic.
Experts have now claimed that oestrogen may be able to protect against coronavirus because it boosts immunity, and helps the body to fight off infections and viruses.
However others believe that the study does not take into account other variables, such as lifestyle, weight and diet.
Both sexes produce oestrogen, but women produce much higher levels of the hormone as it is part of the menstrual cycle.
When women hit menopause their levels of oestrogen start to dip, and can trigger hot flushes, night sweats and other symptoms.
Women can take HRT to alleviate the symptoms, with the drug replacing lower oestrogen levels because of the menopause.
Data from the study published by the BMJ was extracted from Swedish databases, with 2.1 per cent dying from the virus who took HRT.
But of those who received no treatment, 4.6 per cent died from the infection, while ten per cent of women taking oestrogen blockers died after testing positive.
The scientist said women on HRT also had a lower fatality rate than others when the results were adjusted for income and education.
‘DRAMATIC’
Professor Malin Sund at Umeå University in Sweden said: “This study shows an association between oestrogen levels and Covid death.
“Consequently, drugs increasing oestrogen levels may have a role in therapeutic efforts to alleviate Covid severity in postmenopausal women and could be studied in randomised control trials.”
Researchers also claimed that oestrogen may also help protect women by limiting places the virus can enter cells.
Professor Stephen Evans, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was not involved in the research, said the findings were “apparently dramatic”.
He told The Telegraph: “It must be remembered that there is a long history of observational studies, especially in relation to hormone therapy, making dramatic claims of benefit that have not been confirmed in randomised trials.
“It is quite likely that this study follows in such a line, and at the very least, great caution should be exercised in thinking that menopausal therapy will have substantial, or even any, benefits in dealing with Covid.”
The Office for National Statistics found that men were at a slightly higher risk of dying from coronavirus than women, but separate studies from earlier in the pandemic said they could be twice as likely.
In England, 77,032 men have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, compared to 61,978 women.
