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If it's a key hormone, why Covid19 seems to attack especially men?



Those men likely suffer from low T. One of the associated diseases that go along with Covid-19 deaths is diabetes - most men with diabetes have terrible Testosterone profiles. In addition those men, as we know from the stats are unhealthy as they come generally.

https://tinyurl.com/ybtbqxsn

Notice the middle charts concerning age and disease.


But women have lower T.


I'm not a doctor, but my understanding is that women have a different hormonal profile than men and thus having a lower absolute amount of testosterone is not necessarily a problem; the problem is when the balance is not right between testosterone, estrogen, and others.


The point is that it suggests that low testosterone alone is not the cause of the effect they're seeing here.


Like anything with health, it is the system not the parts that matter.

> Q: What are the implications of women’s genetic superiority for the current coronavirus pandemic?

> A simplified way of thinking about that is this: A specific gene on the X chromosome, TLR-7, is often used to recognize single-stranded RNA viruses like the novel coronavirus. Having two versions gives them an advantage in recognizing the virus.

> Additionally, we think that COVID-19 uses its spike protein to enter cells in the body. They do that by unlocking the ACE2 protein on the surface of the cell. And, as it turns out, the ACE2 gene is on the X chromosome. Which means all of men’s cells are using that same [version of the] ACE2 gene. So if they unfortunately encounter a strain of COVID-19 that has a spike protein that can perfectly unlock their ACE2 and enter their cells, men are in big trouble quickly.

> On the other hand, in females’ cells, 50 percent are going to be using likely a slightly different version of the ACE2 than other cells. It’s much more difficult for a strain of corona to have a spike protein that could equally infect both populations of cells.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-reason-more-men-...


This comment is simply not on topic.

The article doesn't claim that testosterone is correlated with Covid19 in any way, it merely says that it might be, and solicits further research. So your question isn't a response to anything in the article.

The HN guidelines explicitly say to not accuse people of not reading the article, but it's hard to have any reasonable discussion if people don't.


The word "key" does not reveal if it's positive or negative, just that it's important. On the other hand - nor does the article. Variance could be explained not only by testosteronje levels, but also by behavior and environemnt. You know - men and women differ.


Because men in 2020 have statistically lower testosterone than men decades before them.


You make a good point, Covid barely bothered men before late 2019.


But that doesn't actually address the question. Why not women, who have less testosterone? Just because men have less than a generation ago, they still probably have more than women.


This CoViD outbreak is the worst on record, you’re right.


Source on that? Or just a quip about a lack of perceived "toughness"?

Edit: Wow looks like it's true, TIL!


If you cut and paste the comment you are replying to into ddg/google you literally get hundreds of references. It’s a very well known phenomenon linked especially to increased obesity.



That article starts off with interesting science (T dropping 50% in a century, T possibly boosted for a generation by cigarettes, etc) and then takes a weird turn at Tyler Cowen and meanders into speculative woods.


Do you have a source for 'cigarettes boost T'? Is it the nicotine or some other chemical in cigarettes?


Not the best immediate source, but it identifies a study which you can look up if this isn't satisfactory:

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59fcc5fbe4b0d467d4c224b3


Thank you!


Just thinking aloud here, but maybe not because testosterone is bad in this case, but because estrogen is protective. I've heard, but I don't have a source, that women fair better than men in many health aspects right up to menopause and then it reverses. If anyone knows of a citation for or against that I'd love a link.




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