LAist: Women’s and Men’s Bodies Might Be More Different Than We Previously Thought

LAist program AirTalk recently interviewed Caroline Jefferies, PhD, scientific director of the Center for Research in Women’s Health Science at Cedars-Sinai, about key differences between women’s and men’s immune function, disease risk, and how medical conditions appear and are treated.

Jefferies, a professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, told AirTalk host Larry Mantle that women generally have a stronger antiviral immune response, while men have a stronger inflammatory response—as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We saw that men succumbed more and had more aggressive disease than women did,” she said. “But now we know that although women were more protected against COVID, they actually have a higher risk of getting long COVID, which is somewhat associated with autoimmune disease.”

Jefferies, an autoimmune disease scientist, told Mantle that 70% of people with autoimmune diseases—in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own cells and tissues—are women. While their immune systems tend to be stronger and stay active longer, sex hormones also play a role.

“Estrogen, for example, drives the antiviral response,” Jefferies told Mantle, adding that “testosterone dampens down that response.”

Jefferies said pregnancy and menopause also can affect immune responses, as can X chromosome biology.

“We really have to understand what genes are responsible for driving the antiviral response on the X chromosome,” Jefferies told Mantle, noting that her laboratory is working to identify targets that could help prevent immune overactivation.

Women often experience other diseases, such as heart disease, differently than men, which can lead to underdiagnosis. Because women were historically excluded from clinical trials, sex differences remain understudied, and many diagnostic tools and treatments are still based largely on male biology.

Click here to listen to the entire segment of AirTalk.