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Estrogen and Testosterone Levels Linked to Long COVID: Exploring the Connection

What caught my eye was the possibility that some long-haul coronavirus symptoms may be related to a lack of estrogen and testosterone for some.

This Vox.com article is the best summary of the long-term effects of COVID symptoms. It’s estimated up to 88% of people suffer post-viral issues. 

If you’ve been putting off getting hormone replacement therapy, especially if you’re “afraid” of hormones (estrogen and testosterone), please grab the free download I’ve arranged for you to have from Dr. Lindsey Berkson, Hormone Scholar called Estrogen Vindication. 

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The many strange long-term symptoms of Covid-19, explained—Vox.com

Long Covid “is a phenomenon that is quite real and quite extensive,” Anthony Fauci said earlier this month.

“A lot of people with long Covid notice that their symptoms get worse just before their period when estrogen levels are the lowest,” says Louise Newson, a general practitioner and menopause specialist. She says, “An additional sign hormones may be involved are Covid symptoms like “brain fog, fatigue, dizziness, joint pain — these are also symptoms of menopause.”

Newson has 842 patient responses so far to a pilot survey, and she says the results “confirm my thoughts that long Covid is likely to be related to low hormone levels (estrogen and testosterone), which so far have been neglected with research.” Estrogen plays a crucial role in women’s health, and having abnormally low levels can lead to infertility, osteoporosis, lack of sex drive, and depression.

Newson says that anecdotally, patients with long Covid from her menopause clinic have improved with the right dose and type of hormone replacement therapy. “They all had low oestradiol and low testosterone results before treatment,” she says.

Long Covid can also significantly impact male reproductive systems and testosterone levels. “Reproductive systems have been overlooked during the pandemic,” says Geoff Hackett, a professor of sexual medicine at Aston University in Birmingham, UK. He explains that during acute illness, the testes can be attacked by the virus directly.

“The testes are one of the highest sites of ACE2 expression,” writes the British Society of Sexual Medicine (BSSM) in its position paper on Covid-19. (This ACE2 enzyme is the primary way SARS-CoV-2 enters cells.) The BSSM adds that SARS-CoV-2 also damages cells on the inner surface of blood vessels called endothelial cells. This condition is “frequently present in men with erectile dysfunction and testosterone deficiency.”

Several recent studies have pointed to testosterone, which in men is produced in the testes, as playing an essential role in coronavirus patients: A study in Germany found that most men admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 had low testosterone levels and high inflammatory markers. (This study was unable to determine if these low testosterone levels predated their coronavirus infection.)

A similar study in Italy found low testosterone levels predicted worse outcomes in hospitalized patients. In Wuhan, China, a third study also found low testosterone levels in coronavirus patients, which they said required “more attention to gonadal function evaluation among patients recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially the reproductive-aged men.”

Hypogonadism, when sex organs don’t produce sufficient hormones, affects both testosterone and sperm production. Another recent paper, published in The Lancet, found that sperm production was impaired in Covid-19 patients, which they said might be explained by an immune response in the testes. Some patients also found auto-immune orchitis or inflammation of the testis with specific anti-sperm antibodies. “There does seem to be some evidence for relative infertility afterward,” Hackett says, though he cautions it’s too early to tell if it would be permanent.

In general, “attacking the cells of the testes will harm erections,” Hackett says. Even beyond a direct effect, endothelial disorder and inflammation may affect the arteries in the penis, making erections more difficult. “Erectile dysfunction will be highly prevalent, particularly if you look at the groups at high risk of Covid-19,” Hackett says. “Seventy-five percent of diabetics have erectile dysfunction anyway.” The next Patient-Led Research Group survey will include questions on shrinkage, erectile dysfunction, and testicular pain based on anecdotal evidence.

Erectile function is a sign of overall health, and urologist Ryan Berglund of the Cleveland Clinic recently made a statement that for young and healthy people who develop this problem after having Covid-19, “this can be a sign of something more serious going on.”

The BSSM is concerned that these reproductive effects may have lasting implications, warning that low testosterone levels in men “are associated with increased mortality,” and that those “who may have survived the current pandemic … may be at considerable risk from second and third wave infection, or future viral pandemics.”

ESTROGEN AND TESTOSTERONE

According to my good friend, Dr. Lindsey Berkson, estrogen is the oldest hormone on the planet, with the most receptors. Hormones “speak” to their receptor, so estrogen, as a hormone, is the most “talkative” hormone in the human body. This makes her the most potent signaling molecule in the female human body.

For decades, millions of women were prescribed estrogen replacement to be forever feminine and young. Estrogen therapy was the number-one selling drug for years, way ahead of PPIs and antidepressants. Estrogen therapy was even used for anxiety and depression.

Dr. Lindsey Berskon took three years to write up the WHI’s misinformation in Safe Hormones, Smart Women, because she did not want women like us to miss out on the anti-aging and protective effects of estrogen. 

I want to send you a FREE eBook, a dive — with over 200 scientific citations — that explains all this. Then, it backs it up with science. My friend and hormone scholar, Dr. Lindsey Berkson, wrote this book. She’s also the author of Sexy Brain, one of the many books she’s published in her 70+ years of helping women.

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estrogen and testosterone

THE VINDICATION OF ESTROGEN

I’m a big believer in the benefits of hormone replacement. If you’ve procrastinated about getting your hormones topped up, I hope that this will encourage you to make an appointment with your doctor.

Functional medicine doctors are generally the most proficient in prescribing BHRT (bio-identical hormone replacement therapy). Today’s general allopathic doctors are not being taught in medical school how to do this well. I recommend you find a doctor on this website. They have the best practitioners in the business for hormone, gut, and brain trouble, and things that the surgical/pharmaceutical machine, our healthcare system, doesn’t have experience managing.

Find A Functional Medicine Doctor Nearby ⇐ Trusted Resource

Here is an ebook with all my hormone balancing (estrogen and testosterone) videos if you want to learn more.

Hormone Balancing ⇐ More Resources Before Seeing Your Doctor

I love and care about you.

Let me know if this was helpful.

Reference: https://www.vox.com/22166236/long-term-side-effects-covid-19-symptoms-heart-fatigue

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