Here’s Why Women Experience Stronger Side Effects to COVID-19 Vaccines

• Researchers at the CDC say women tend to have stronger side effects to COVID-19 vaccines than men.
• Experts say this isn’t unusual with vaccinations because the estrogen in women’s bodies is designed to elicit a stronger immune response.
• They add that women still shouldn’t hesitate to get the COVID-19 vaccine because the potential consequences of the disease are far worse than the vaccination side effects.

Frontline workers Shelly and Scott Blomgren were among the first people in the United States to get the COVID-19 vaccine in January.

The afternoon after their second shot of the Moderna vaccine, it was clear to Shelly that their reactions to the vaccine were remarkably different.

“He was fine,” she told Healthline. “Me? I was dying. I’m a tough cookie. I can take pain. But this was awful.”

Blomgren said she struggled for almost 2 days with “the worst body aches I’ve had in my life,” along with chills, fever, and exhaustion, while her husband went on with his work and life with just a few chills.

Two days later, they were both fine and fully vaccinated.

What the Blomgren’s experienced is apparently repeating itself in many homes across the nation.

A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that of the first 13.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses given to Americans, reports of side effects were coming at a higher rate from females.

In fact, 79 percent of side effects reported came from women, although only 61 percent of the vaccines were given to women.