Effect of menopausal hormone therapy on COVID-19 severe outcomes in women - A population-based study of the US National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) data

Yilin Yoshida; San Chu; Yuanhao Zu; Sarah Fox; Franck Mauvais-Jarvis; N3C consortium

doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2022.10.005

Effect of menopausal hormone therapy on COVID-19 severe outcomes in women - A population-based study of the US National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) data

Maturitas. 2023 Apr:170:39-41. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2022.10.005. Epub 2022 Nov 4.

Authors

Yilin Yoshida¹, San Chu², Yuanhao Zu³, Sarah Fox⁴, Franck Mauvais-Jarvis⁵; N3C consortium

Affiliations

¹ Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Deming Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA; Tulane Center of Excellence in Sex-Based Biology & Medicine. Electronic address: yyoshida1@tulane.ed.
² Pennington Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
⁴ School of Science and Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
⁵ Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Deming Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA; Tulane Center of Excellence in Sex-Based Biology & Medicine; Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, New Orleans, LA 70119, USA.

Abstract

Whether menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) lessens the severity of COVID-19 among women is unclear. Leveraging a U.S. national COVID-19 cohort and a cross-sectional analysis, we found MHT use was marginally associated with a lower risk of mortality (odds ratio [OR] 0.73, 95 % CI 0.53-1.01) and significantly associated with a lower risk of prolonged hospital stay (0.7, 0.49-0.99) among inpatient women. When stratifying by MHT type, estrogen-only and estrogen-plus-progestin therapies had a more prominent protective effect than progestin-only therapy, although this difference did not achieve statistical significance. Women with COVID-19 can continue to use MHT. Clinical trials are needed to evaluate MHT's therapeutic effect on COVID-19, especially in terms of severity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Hospitalization; Menopausal hormone therapy; Mortality.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Estrogens
Female
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Humans
Menopause*
Progestins

Substances

Progestins
Estrogens

Grants and funding

U24 TR002306/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States