The belief is widespread that men, due to physiological characteristics, tolerate SARS worse than women. We checked whether this is confirmed by scientific data.
The fact that in men a cold is harder than in women, Report sites medical clinic and publications for men, doctors in radio and in Telegram channelsas well as federal media. Over the years, publications on this subject went to TASS, RBC, "Newspaper.ru" Sports.ru and other publications. Numerous memes are also devoted to men due to light cold because of a light cold.
Acute respiratory viral infections (SARS) is group Diseases caused by influenza viruses and paragraph, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, respiratory syncitial virus (RSV), adenoviruses and metapneumovirus. The people are usually called the collective word "cold." These diseases amazing Mostly respiratory organs are both the upper and lower respiratory tract. SARS is included in the number of the most common Diseases in the world to which representatives of all age groups are subject to. By assessment Scientists, children get a cold from six to ten times a year, adults - from two to four. On sick leave because of SARS, like testifies Statistics, account for up to 80% of the total learning time in schoolchildren and up to 50% of the missed working time in adults.
Typical symptoms are conditional divided To local (respiratory) and general. The first group includes sneezing, congestion and discharge from the nose, sore throat, cough (dry or with sputum), hoarseness or loss of voice and discomfort in the ears. The most common general symptoms are an increase in temperature and chills, headache and muscle pain, general weakness and fatigue. At the same time, the clinical manifestations of SARS can vary depending on the specific pathogen, age of the patient, the state of the immune system and the presence of concomitant diseases. But can the patient's gender influence the severity of the disease?
Observations of the immune response to the vaccination from influenza, which were conducted by scientists from the USA and France in 2013, Showedthat in men it is generally less pronounced than in women. Moreover, among the participants in the study with the highest level of testosterone, antibodies were produced worst. Scientists explained this by the fact that testosterone probably worsens the immune response. Also, the authors of the study noted that the difference in immune answers in men and women was more pronounced among young people than among the elderly. It turns out that young men with a high level of this hormone vaccination will protect the worst of all and, probably, they will be more susceptible to the disease.
However, then the researchers conducted an additional test. With the help of a micronutalization reaction, they studied how effective the culture of the cells of volunteers who underwent vaccination coped with the pathogens against which the vaccine was supposed to protect them. It turned out that sexual differences were observed only in the case of the H3N2 strain (flu A), while on the H1N1 strain (pathogen, which is also responsible for the Spaniard and Pork influenza) and flu -B immune systems of people of both sexes reacted the same.
Female sex hormones also participate in the immune system. For example, estrogen, found out American scientists in 2022 have an anti -inflammatory effect and helps restore after infection and healing of wounds. The 2015 experiment, conducted by Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, showedthat another female sex hormone - estradiol also helps to fight viruses. The cells of the nasal epithelium from female donor, treated with this hormone, better suppressed the flu virus A than the raw ones. At the same time, the hormone did not help cells from male donor male. Scientists see this mechanism of evolutionary protection - the level of estradiol increases during pregnancy, protecting a woman and fruit from severe viral diseases.
Although at the cellular level biological mechanisms that determine the connection of sex hormones and immunity, really exist, to draw on this basis the conclusion that men carry SARS heavier, prematurely. Most of these experiments were conducted in vitro, that is, in the test tube, and the reliability of such data is not very high, Notes Canadian doctor and researcher Kyle Sue in an article for the British Medical Journal. Moreover, he rightly notes that in such studies, mainly flu was studied, and dozens of different viruses can cause a cold. As the immune system of men and women reacts to them, it is only necessary to find out.
Some scientists in search of an answer turned to statistics. So, researchers from Hong Kong in 2015 Counted, what sex patients are more often hospitalized with severe flu. The difference turned out to be statistically significant only among children - the boys actually got to the hospital more often than girls. Moreover, among adults, the distribution turned out to be almost uniform. In 2022, a similar study Spent American scientists - however, they were not interested in the fact of hospitalization, but the diversity and severity of the symptoms. In their study on the severity of the course of the disease, women were leading. Spanish scientists in 2020 investigated The gender distribution of sick and dead from Covid-19. Although in the sample representatives of both sexes were infected almost evenly (51% and 49%), the mortality was higher in men (4.4% versus 2.5%). Researchers suggested that the matter is by no means in the characteristics of the immunity associated with the floor, but in the fact that there were more smokers among men, so their respiratory diseases were harder. Journalists The Wall Street Journal in the same 2020 Analyzed Similar American statistics drew attention to the fact that men are faced with a higher risk of infection and death from coronavirus than women. At the same time, the publication notes, men as a whole lead a less healthy lifestyle, more often have concomitant health problems, tend to neglect prevention and until the last to postpone a visit to the doctor. These assumptions confirm the study of Scottish scientists - they found outthat women are much more often men to treat doctors with light symptoms of SARS.
Other researchers relied on subjective reports of patients. In 2019, Swedish scientists Published The results of the 30-year observation of almost 15,000 people-volunteers interviewed what symptoms of ailment they experienced over the past three months. In general, women more often complained about poor health and called almost all the symptoms (with the exception of problems with urination and hearing disorders). However, to write women in simulators prematurely. In 1993 in Glasgow Spent The experiment, during which men and women were offered to evaluate the severity of their disease with a respiratory infection, but their answers were compared with an independent assessment of specialists. It turned out that women more often evaluated their condition objectively, and men were inclined to believe that they tolerate SARS harder than in fact. In 2022, Austrian researchers StudiedHow men and women suffer from rhinosinusitis, and received completely different data. In their experiment, it was women soon after the infection subjectively evaluated themselves as more sick than men (but also recovered faster - according to the same subjective assessment).
Dr. Charles Garven in the Material for Cleveland Clinic Summarizes: There is no evidence that the severity of SARS is associated with the patient's floor, today. There are disparate studies on the role of sex hormones in an immune response, there is conflicting statistics, but all this is not enough to argue that men tolerate a cold worse than women. Firstly, the expert explains, the severity of the symptoms is a rather subjective factor, and secondly, many details will always affect the severity of the disease: lifestyle, nutrition, weight, physical activity, concomitant diseases, etc. Finally, in addition to biological, there is still a social context. In many societies, it is believed that a man should usually be stronger and more resilient, so the disease gives him a peculiar indulgence, allows him to relax and allow others to take his foot. In English there is even expression “Male flu” (Man FLU) - it is used in a situation where the disease does not pose any danger, but the sick (usually male) is unjustified to it seriously.
All studies conducted today can hardly be called sufficient in order to draw unequivocal conclusions about the relationship between the severity of SARS and the sex of the patient - each of them ignores one or another aspect. Kyle Sue in an article for the "British Medical Journal" Writesthat an experiment that excludes the social context would be ideal. For example, men are randomly distributed in two groups infected with a virus, while the first cares about nurses, volunteers from the second are left to their own, and scientists compare the severity of the symptoms.
Garven sums up: although evidence of the existence of “male influenza” has not yet been obtained, this is not a reason to ignore malaise and not a reason for ridicule from the outside. The doctor recommends a cold for his own sensations and the advice of doctors, and not on cultural stereotypes.
Thus, sex hormones really play a role in the work of the immune system, and the testosterone suppresses the immune response, and estrogen stimulates. However, these conclusions were obtained on the basis of experiments with cell cultures, and not with living people, which means that it cannot be argued that men carry respiratory diseases worse than women. The statistics are very contradictory, and many existing studies ignore the social context and do not take into account the lifestyle of the participants in the experiments. Judging by the available scientific data, the ideas about the “male cold” are much more determined by cultural stereotypes, and not biological differences.
Image on the cover: Image by Myshoun from Pixabay
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