- * Over age 60, COVID-19 kills three times more males than females.
- * Before age 60, males have up to eight times higher levels of circulating testosterone.
- * After age 30, testosterone in males declines steadily throughout life, unlike the abrupt menopause.
- * Abnormally low testosterone in men over 40 becomes common – up to 20% in the middle-aged to elderly – up to 53% in the elderly admitted to hospital with acute illnesses.
- * The male immune system is less responsive when testosterone deficient – and older
- * A Covid attack is launched through the lining of the lungs, their defences having been degraded by the virus blocking the powerfully protective enzyme, ACE2.
- * ACE2 is produced in the testicles – in the Leydig cells (testosterone) and in the Sertoli cells (spermatozoa).
- * The virus has damaged the testicular cells resulting in a precipitate fall of an already depleted testosterone.
- * Deprived of any other remaining defence, the immune system whips up a “cytokine storm”, a storm of proteins which signals a massively exaggerated inflammatory response to the virus in the lungs, flooding the tissues with possibly fatal fluid.
References:
PMC7494488
PMID: 32883151
PMID: 32436355
