Because male coronavirus patients are getting severely ill and dying at higher rates from COVID-19 than women, some scientists think estrogen and other female sex hormones may hold the key for treatment. So, doctors on Long Island in New York and in the Los Angeles area are launching trials of two different hormones (estrogen and progesterone, respectively) to see if there's any truth to the hypothesis, The New York Times reports.
It's not all pure speculation — one of the more telling signs is that pregnant women, who are usually immunocompromised, tend to have mild COVID-19 cases. Lo and behold, they have high levels of estrogen and progesterone. Research has also shown estrogen may have an effect on a protein the coronavirus uses on the surface of cells as an entry route. The hormone has been able to reduce the protein expression in rat kidneys, which certainly does not mean its success in humans is a given, but does signal effectiveness is at least possible.
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