You probably know that there is a risk of developing minor side effects after any of the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use. But what you probably do not know is that the data clearly show that more women than men are reporting side effects from the vaccines.
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At the end of February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which marked the first month of administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in the USA, and ‘ found a clear gender division. People who gave the 13.7 million vaccine were encouraged to report any side effects they may experience through V-safe, the CDC’s health check after vaccination. Of the 6,994 people who reported side effects, 79.1% were women. And it is definitely worth pointing out, only 61.2% of those vaccinated were women.
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FYI: This is not necessarily a bad (or new) thing.
It does not seem to be one-time. Another study by CDC researchers conducted in JAMA in February found that all 19 people who experienced the severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to anaphylaxis after receiving the Moderna vaccine were women. So were 44 of the 47 people who experienced the reaction after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Anecdotally speaking, the evidence is also there: in a recent article for The New York Times, Shelly Kendeffy, a 44-year-old medical technician in State College, Pennsylvania, said she and her colleagues – eight men and seven women – all received their second dose of Modner COVID-19 vaccine and had drastically different reactions. Six of the women apparently had body aches, chills and fatigue; one threw it up. Of the men, only four had very mild symptoms, and four had no symptoms at all.
Although Kendeffy, who also experienced flu-like symptoms of the dose, felt better within 24 hours and “nothing would change”, she also says she “did not know what to expect.” This is what you need to know about why women may experience worse side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine.
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First, here are the possible side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine
Although you can get the COVID-19 vaccine and have no side effects, there is a chance that you may experience something. If this happens to you, do not be afraid – the CDC says that side effects are normal signs that your body is building up protection against the virus, should you ever come in contact with it. Possible side effects include:
- Pain in the arm where you got the chance
- Redness in the area where you were vaccinated
- Swelling in the arm where you got the shot
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Muscle aches
- Cold Fever
- Fever
- Nausea
The CDC study published in late February found that headaches (22.4%), fatigue (16.5%) and dizziness (16.5%) were the most reported.
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So why can more women than men report side effects from the vaccine?
It’s hard to say at this point. Although more women have been found in research to report side effects of the vaccine, nothing could determine at this stage why this may be the case.
“I do not think there is enough information to draw strong conclusions as to why it is more prevalent in women than men,” said Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, Infectious Diseases. , tell Health. It is quite possible that women are just more likely to report their symptoms, he says.
But while women are more likely to report symptoms, it’s not the only thing going on, says William Schaffner, MD, a specialist in infectious diseases and a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Health. Women have more autoimmune diseases than men and ‘it seems to be because their immune system is more reactive’, he says. While dr. Schaffner says that the exact reason for this is unclear, he does say that there may be hormonal differences. Estrogen “sticks” to the immune system, while testosterone slightly dampens it, he says.
“There’s a real difference between immune responses between men and women,” says Dr. Schaffner. “We in the medical community have not studied it as thoroughly as we should.”
Men and women also metabolize drugs differently, says Jennifer Wider, managing director of women, Health. “Clinical trials often do not take this difference into account, and the vaccine dose may be on the higher side for female recipients,” she says.
Antibody responses to vaccines may also be slightly higher in women than men, says Dr. Wider, with research that differs more with age. As a result, she says, the side effect response may be “more robust.”
There is also what you need to consider: it seems that the phenomena also occur with flu vaccine. A 2013 study published in the journal Vaccination analyzed reports of side effects after the 2009 H1N1 vaccine and found that women between the ages of 20 and 59 had much higher allergic reactions than men, although more men than women received the vaccine. (The rates were the same in other age groups.)
And a 2019 study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology who analyzed cases of anaphylaxis after vaccination from 1990 and 2016, found that women account for 80% of all anaphylactic reactions to vaccines in adults.
In general, the link is “something that needs to be studied in more detail in order to be fully unraveled,” says Dr. Adalja. But this is also not something new. “It’s been happening for years,” says Rajeev Fernando, MD, an expert in infectious diseases who works in field hospitals around the world. “I would just tell women to be aware of that.”
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What to do if you have side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine
Know first that it is actually a good thing to have side effects from the vaccine. “It means the vaccine works,” says Jamie Alan, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology at Michigan State University.
Dr. Fernando also emphasizes that women – and everyone – should still get the vaccine whenever they can, regardless of the possible side effects. “It’s very simple: vaccination saves lives,” he says. “The benefit of getting the vaccine and not dying from COVID-19 outweighs the risks.”
The CDC says that it is OK to take OTC medications such as ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin or antihistamines, for any pain and discomfort you may have after being vaccinated. But the CDC recommends that you do not use any of the medications previously you are vaccinated and note that at this stage it is not known how it can affect how well the vaccines work.
For arm pain, the CDC suggests placing a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area where you were shot or moving your arm more. And if you have a fever, the CDC says you should drink plenty of fluids and light clothing.
If you experience serious side effects or do not relieve the above methods, dr. Adalja to call your doctor about the next steps.
The information in this story is accurate from the press time. However, as the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, it is possible that some data have changed since publication. While Health wants to keep our stories as current as possible, we encourage readers to stay up to date with news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC, WHO, and their local department of public health as resources.
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