A study published in Family Medicine revealed that women with estrogen-based hormone replacement treatment (HRT) within six months of contracting COVID-19 had a lower risk of mortality.

Data suggest that men were more at risk of hospitalization and death from COVID than women. This gives additional evidence that women might be protected better against the coronavirus owing to estrogen levels. Also, it was observed that women tackled well and recovered better compared to men in previous pandemics such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

Researchers detected 5,451 COVID cases in medical data of 1,863,478 women from 465 general practises in England, who underwent hormone replacement treatment.  A reduction of 78 % in "all-cause death" was seen among these women. The study focused on the first six months of the epidemic when vaccines were not yet available.

Another study published earlier this year in BMJ Open based on Swedish data indicated that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is linked to a lower risk of death from COVID-19 in women.

More research is necessary to better understand the impact of estrogen levels on COVID cases and also study if estrogen-containing contraception influences COVID risk.

(Medscape; May 19, 2022)