Women with long COVID suffer more neurological symptoms than men, Northwestern study finds

A new Northwestern Medicine study on long COVID shows women show more neurological symptoms than men.

Doctors said they were surprised to see such a difference.

The study examined 2,329 patients who have been seen at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro COVID-19 clinic, about two-thirds of whom were women.

Researchers found more women affected by long COVID reported brain fog, dizziness, and numbness, while it was more common for men to have suffered no neurological symptoms at all.

Women also reported a worse impact on their quality of life from fatigue than men.

Women affected by long COVID also scored lower on cognitive tests than men who were affected.

"We hope that our study will alert providers about the importance of a timely diagnosis of long COVID in women and targeted intervention, especially since women have severely often affected by gender bias in medicine," said Dr. Igor J. Koralnik, chief of neuroinfectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine.

Researchers believe long COVID affects women more severely because it is an autoimmune disease, and women are more prone to such conditions than men.

Northwestern has treated more than 3,300 patients with long COVID from 44 states.