COVID-19 and pregnancy

Boys born to mothers who got COVID-19 while pregnant appear nearly twice as likely as other boys to be diagnosed with subtle delays in brain development.

That's the conclusion of a study of more than 18,000 children born at eight hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. Nearly 900 of the children were born to mothers who had COVID during their pregnancy.

In the study, boys, but not girls, were more likely to be diagnosed with a range of developmental disorders in the first 18 months of life. These included delays in speech and language, psychological development and motor function, as well as intellectual disabilities.

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"As part of the body's effort to fight the virus, it produces proteins known as cytokines, which regulate the immune system.

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But cytokines, unlike most pathogens, can cross the placenta and cause inflammation in a fetal brain. And animal studies suggest that this inflammation has a greater impact on the brains of male fetuses than female fetuses, and results in different behavioral abnormalities after birth.

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The Harvard researchers plan to continue assessing the children in their study for several more years. That will allow them to see whether the early delays in boys persist or result in a diagnosis like autism spectrum disorder.

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The finding is just the latest to suggest that a range of maternal infections can alter fetal brain development, especially in male offspring. For example, studies have found links between infections like influenza and cytomegalovirus, and disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

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With influenza or COVID-19, the risk to a fetus appears to come primarily from the mother's immune response to an infection, not the infection itself.

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But the effect from COVID-19 appears to be modest, Perlis says. "Most children of moms who have COVID during pregnancy won't have neurodevelopmental consequences even if there is some increase in risk.

  NPR

But why just males? Is it connected to genes on the missing arm on the Y chromosome?  Or what?  (That missing arm is what I blame all undesirable male traits on.  It's handy.)

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.