Testicles Cause Longer Male Covid-19 Suffering Says India Study

A study claims that men infected with Covid-19 suffer longer than women, because the coronavirus lingers in their testicles.

THE survey from India looked at why men seemed to be prone to more severe and longer cases of Covid-19, and discovered a link to the testicles.

Researchers looked at the recovery process of 68 patients in Mumbai to try to find out the reason for the possible gender disparity.

Dr Aditi Shastri, an oncologist from New York, and her mother, Dr Jayanthi Shastri, from an infectious diseases unit in Mumbai, said that the virus attaches itself to a protein that occurs in high levels in the testicles.

This protein, known ACE2, is present in the lungs, the gastrointestinal tract and the heart in addition to large quantities in the testicles.

But since testicles are walled off from the immune system, the virus could stay there for longer periods than the rest of the body, according to the study.

The mother-daughter researchers said these findings may explain why women bounce back from the virus more quickly than men.

They determined that the average amount of time for female patients to be cleared of the virus was four days, while men saw recoveries that on average were two days longer, the report said.

Others surveys have suggested that men are more vulnerable to Covid-19 because they are more likely to smoke, have high blood pressure or suffer coronary artery disease.