July 2026

NEUROSCIENCES

STUDY FINDS WOMEN EXPERIENCE MORE SEVERE NEUROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF LONG COVID THAN MEN

Episode Summary

A new study from Northwestern Medicine published in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology shows that adult women experience more severe neurological symptoms of long COVID than adult men.
 
While past studies have found that women are more frequently affected by long COVID than men, the new study showed for the first time that women report more neurologic symptoms of long COVID and experience worse impacts on quality of life and cognitive function than men. 
 
“We were surprised to see such a significant difference between female and male patients,” says Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of Neuroinfectious Disease and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine and corresponding author of the study. “Both in the frequency of neurologic long COVID symptoms and in levels of self-reported fatigue, as well as in a cognitive task of attention.”
 
Study Highlights
  • The study looked at the first consecutive 2,329 patients who have been seen at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro COVID-19 Clinic.
  • Approximately two-thirds of patients were women. 
  • Women more frequently reported neurologic symptoms such as brain fog, dizziness, headache, numbness, and tingling and pain.
  • No neurologic symptoms were more common in men.
  • Women also reported more non-neurologic symptoms, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, dysautonomia and gastrointestinal issues. 
  • Women also reported worse alteration of their quality of life caused by fatigue than men on standardized questionnaires.
  • Women scored lower than men in a task of attention on objective cognitive tests.
 
“A Household Pulse Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics estimated that nearly 18% of U.S. adults had experienced long COVID and that 5% were experiencing it as of September 2024. It is safe to estimate that long COVID still affects millions of adults in the United States currently,” says Dr. Koralnik. 
 
To date, the Neuro COVID-19 Clinic has treated more than 3,300 patients with long COVID from 44 states, while partnering with Shirley Ryan AbilityLab for rehabilitation administered by speech-language pathologists to help restore daily functioning. While severe cases of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization have become rare, Dr. Koralnik says COVID-19 continues to occur and the risk of developing long COVID increases with repeat occurrences of COVID-19.
Igor Koralnik, MD, the Archibald Church Professor of Neurology and chief of Neuroinfectious Disease and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine

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