DEAR Dr. Fritz,
Please call me Kojak. I am concerned because a friend told me that he has read that bald men are more likely to die from Covid-19. Is this true? Hoping to hear from you soon.
Kojak of Davao
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Dear Kojak of Davao,
Yes. Your friend has read it right. Research shows that bald men are more likely to die after they get the coronavirus compared to those who have hairs.
Scientists think that it’s possible that androgens, male sex hormones like testosterone, is the gateway for the virus to enter the cells. This could also mean that treatments for baldness, which suppress these sex hormones, might be able to fight off the coronavirus.
This risk factor is called the “Gabrin sign,” after Frank Gabrin, the bald doctor in the United States who died of Covid-19.
There are underway several clinical trials in this sphere. One study is using baldness and prostate cancer drugs. A small study in Spain found that 79 percent of the men admitted to three
Madrid hospitals with coronavirus were bald.
This androgen link was also found in a prostate cancer study from Italy, in which patients who were given androgen-deprivation therapy were only a quarter as likely to be infected with Covid-19 compared to men with the disease given with other treatments.
These findings only suggest that androgens can make the virus more virulent and that this worsens the severity of disease in men.
Other data however, shows that men are more vulnerable to coronavirus than women. In fact, a Chinese study from late April 2020 found that men are 2.5 times more likely to die of Covid-19.
Good luck!
Dr. Fritz
(Dr. Fritz Legarde Espedilla is an aesthetic dermatologist and surgeon and a clinical sexologist. She is also trained in hypnotherapy and Medical Acupuncture. She is the co-host of digital page of Superbalita. She has been in the broadcast media for more than a decade and has written a book based on her 15 year stint with her radio program, Healthy is Sexy Secrets ni Dr. Fritz.. For your questions, you may send them to Dear Dr. Fritz, c/o Sunstar-Davao Publishing Inc., Ebro-Pelayo Building, Jacinto St., Davao City (former Department of Foreign Affairs office), across Ateneo de Davao University and beside Holy Child School of Davao, or you e-mail them to dokfritz@yahoo.com. If you don’t wish your letter to be published, we regret that we cannot answer them. Thank you for your understanding.)