Female hormone may protect women from severe COVID-19-related disease and death
February 18, 2022, 8:59 am

Female hormone may protect women from severe COVID-19-related disease and death

Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) in a press release on Thursday said that the female hormone estrogen may protect women from severe heart disease and death caused by COVID-19 (File photo: Pixabay)

The Xinhua reported, Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) in a press release on Thursday said that the female hormone estrogen may protect women from severe heart disease and death caused by COVID-19.

According to a joint study by HUS, the University of Helsinki, and the University of Umea of Sweden, the estrogen supplement halved the risk of death due to COVID-19 in women.

According to the study, the mortality rate for women receiving the estrogen supplement was 2.1 percent, compared with 4.6 percent for women in the control group.

The study has been published in BMJ Open, a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal.

The study compared the mortality of women diagnosed with COVID-19 disease at the beginning of the pandemic with the effect of estrogen on mortality.

Women with face masks-COVID (File photo: Pixabay) — Women with face masks-COVID-19 (File photo: Pixabay)

According to the Xinhua, the study included around 15,000 women aged 50 to 80 who were diagnosed with COVID-19 related heart disease between February and September 2020. The 2,500 women in the study had estrogen replacement therapy for menopausal symptoms, and about 200 women received estrogen-lowering medication after cancer treatment. There were 12,000 women in the control group who did not receive estrogen-increasing or estrogen-lowering medication.

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The group receiving estrogen-lowering therapy had the highest risk of death. However, a causal relationship to estrogen could not be established as patients in this group were older than the control group and had received cancer treatment. Age and cancer treatments increase the risk of serious heart disease and death caused by COVID-19.

Malin Sund, professor and chief physician at HUS, in the press release, said: "Our study does not yet lead to a change in treatment practices, so estrogen therapy should not be started or estrogen-lowering medication should be discontinued based on this study."

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The Xinhua noted that the study was conducted before COVID-19 vaccines were available. Thus, it is not yet possible to deduce from the study how much estrogen reduces the risk of serious illness and death among vaccinated women, said the release.

Source: xinhua

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
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