A new study suggests that if you have that XY chromosome, you’re reportedly more at risk for coronavirus-related illness.
Conducted by researchers in Mumbai, India, the study has found that coronavirus could linger in a man’s testicles, making men prone to longer and more severe cases of the illness, according to the New York Post.
Since testicles are walled off from the immune system, the virus could harbor there for longer periods than the rest of the body, according to the study.
Dr. Aditi Shastri, an oncologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and her mother, Dr. Jayanthi Shastri — a microbiologist at the Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Mumbai — said the virus attaches itself to a protein that occurs in high levels in the testicles.
In order to conduct the study, the researchers tracked the recovery of 68 patients to study the gender disparity of the coronavirus, which has reportedly taken a worse toll on men, according to a preliminary report.
The report was posted on MedRxiv, a site that hosts unpublished medical research papers that have not been peer-reviewed.
The mother-daughter researchers said these findings may explain why women bounce back from the virus faster 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, according to their report.
“These observations demonstrate that male subjects have delayed viral clearance,” the authors of the study wrote, adding that the testicles may be serving as “reservoirs” for the virus.
The study may offer an explanation for reports out of Italy, South Korea, and New York City that men are dying at higher rates from the virus.
Others have suggested that men are more vulnerable because they are more likely to have other pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure.
