If you are a woman who has experienced more serious side effects with the COVID-19 vaccine than your brother, father, co-worker or partner, you are not alone and you are not imagining things.
Most of the vaccine side effects reported so far have been in women. This may be because women are more likely than men to recognize symptoms such as headache and fatigue, but there may also be a biological reason why women experience more serious side effects than men, experts say.
“We know that with vaccines and infections, women tend to have a stronger immune response than men,” Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist in Boston, told Good Morning America. “This is really driven by biological differences in men and women and sex hormones.”
Stephanie Durocher, a high school teacher in Raleigh, North Carolina, felt the difference firsthand when she received the Moderna vaccine last month.
After her first injection, Dorucher said she had a skin rash at the injection site, which she said was also itchy and hot.
After her second injection last week, Dorucher was left out with side effects, including body aches, fever, chills and nausea, which she described as “five horrible days”.
These types of side effects are affecting women across the country – in the first 13.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered to Americans earlier this year, 79% of reports of side effects were reported by women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The most frequently reported symptoms were headache, dizziness and fatigue, according to the CDC.
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A separate study, published in February in JAMA, also found that most anaphylactic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines occurred in women.
Fortunately, the side effects of the vaccine are temporary, usually disappearing within a day or two after the injection. And allergic reactions are extremely rare, occurring in less than five people in every 1 million injections administered.
Wildes explained that women and men experience different side effects because the COVID-19 vaccine stimulates the body to produce foreign proteins, and women’s bodies react differently to men.
“When we receive the COVID vaccine, we will be introducing foreign proteins into our bodies and teaching cells to make antibodies and T cells to help fight infection if we are exposed to it.” she said. “What happens in the female body is that these cells create more proteins than the male ones.”
“When women get the vaccine, we are going to complain about more side effects because our immune system is faster,” explained Wildes. “We are able to produce more of the antibodies, the T cells against this foreign material, the COVID-19 vaccine.”
The different immune responses between men and women may also help explain why men experienced a higher mortality rate from COVID-19 during the pandemic, according to Wildes.
Experts like Wildes say that women’s tendency to report medical symptoms more may also be a factor in the higher percentage of women reporting the side effects of the COVID vaccine.
“Women in general just report more, so there is that difference,” said Wildes. “I can’t say how many men I’m going to see at the hospital who say, ‘My wife forced me to go to the hospital’, while some men will say, ‘It’s not a big deal.'”
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The different reactions between men and women to the vaccine range COVID-19 with what experts also saw with other vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, according to Wildes.
She emphasized that reports of side effects should not prevent any woman from being vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We are seeing more side effects with women and that does not mean that they should not have, it just means that this is what we are seeing,” said Wildes. “Don’t let this be an indicator to say, ‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t understand.'”
“Being informed about what to expect really makes a difference,” she added.
People receiving the COVID-19 vaccine may experience pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, according to the CDC, adding that throughout the body people may experience fatigue, muscle pain, chills, fever, headaches and nausea .
According to the CDC, people should avoid taking painkillers like ibuprofen before taking the covid-19 vaccine because it is not clear whether these drugs will interfere with the vaccine’s effectiveness. However, the CDC says it should be safe to take a pain reliever after the injection, to treat any pain or discomfort, after discussing it with your doctor.
Most people can expect the side effects to disappear “within a few days”. People should contact their doctor if the side effects are of concern to them and / or will not go away after a few days, according to the CDC.
Wildes explained that any side effects are normal signs that the vaccine is working on his body. She also noted that the response “has no correlation with how the vaccine is working in your body”.
“Each person’s response is different,” said Wildes. “We are telling you what to expect [with side effects] so you are not alarmed and can be prepared for whatever comes. “
Side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine reported more by women than men: Here’s why it originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com