Estrogen and Covid-19 Mortality

Women given a hormone replacement prescription within six months of a Covid-19 infection were less likely to die.

A new study came out of England this week, the results of which both astonished me and—the more I learn about the protective properties of estrogen—didn’t astonish me. Namely, those women given a hormone replacement prescription within six months of a recorded Covid-19 infection were less likely to die.

Moreover, according to the study, women with asthma who were treated with estrogen after a Covid-19 diagnosis had a “significantly lower risk of mortality.” Having struggled to breathe during three frightening nights of my own Covid-19 infection back in March of 2020, worried at one particular low-oxygen-saturation point that I wouldn’t make it, I wonder if the fact that I’d just started on Divigel a few weeks prior to coming down with Covid might have saved my life. My lung damage was pretty severe, lasted over a year, and required a daily steroid inhaler, and my long-haul Covid still flares up now and then, but, hey, I’m alive. Thanks, estrogen?

I know I sound like a broken record these days, writing all of these stories about the importance of estrogen for brain health, Alzheimer’s protection, vulvar and vaginal health, UTI protection, etc., but the more I learn about the gaps in our doctors’ knowledge of the female body, the more I read about the misreading of the results of the Women’s Health Initiative, and the more I hear from young feminist physicians about the benefits of estrogen, the more I feel it is my duty, as someone who has a basic ability to communicate, to get the word out. My daughter and I were FaceTiming recently during her med school unit on the renal system, and I was curious if, during a two-hour lecture on UTIs, her professor mentioned estrogen as protective for women. 

Nope. Not once.

I mentioned this glaring omission to urologist Dr. Ashley Winter, whom I urge you to follow on Twitter because she makes me laugh daily, and she said that this didn’t surprise her. During her six years of urology residency, estrogen as an effective treatment for UTIs was mentioned exactly zero times. She only learned about its healing properties during her fellowship with my other hero of female sexual and vulvar health, Dr. Rachel Rubin. Who also uses Twitter to try to change hearts and minds daily.

Look, I’m sorry to say this all goes back to sexual predator Matt Lauer. How?