A scoping review of long COVID and menopause

Abstract

According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), long COVID refers to symptoms persisting for four weeks or more after acute infection, with over 100 identified, including fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and breathlessness. Women aged 45–54 are disproportionately affected, overlapping with the typical age for perimenopause and menopause. This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of existing research on the intersection between long COVID and the menopausal transition.

Methods:
Five database (CINAHL ultimate, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Cochrane, and Scopus) searches yielded 387 articles; after removing 40 duplicates and screening 347 titles and abstracts, fourteen studies were reviewed in full, with seven meeting the inclusion criteria (examined both long COVID and menopause in their scope and are written in English language).

Results:
This scoping review identified a significant symptomatic overlap between long COVID and menopause reported by participants, particularly fatigue, cognitive difficulties, mood changes, and sleep disturbances. Preliminary evidence also suggests that hormonal fluctuations may influence symptom severity, though biological mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. Methodological limitations restrict generalisability, underscoring the need for longitudinal symptom tracking, diverse samples, and biomarker-informed studies. Recognising the intersection of long COVID and menopausal transition is essential for improving assessment, management, and targeted care for affected women.

Rights

Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/covid6010007

Repository URI

https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/9d049b4a-c852-4ef0-ac20-bfa94cedd1cb