Does Biological Sex Matter in Lyme Disease? The Need for Sex-Disaggregated Data in Persistent Illness

Abstract

Background Biological sex should be included as an important variable in clinical research studies to identify outcome differences between men and women. Very few Lyme disease studies were designed to consider sex-based differences or gender bias as an important component of the research design. Methods To assess sex-based differences in Lyme disease patients who were clinically diagnosed and reported remaining ill for six or more months after receiving antibiotic treatment, we analyzed self-reported clinical data from 2170 patients in the MyLymeData patient registry. We also reviewed previous Lyme disease studies for distribution of patients by biological sex according to stage of illness, data source, and definition of disease used as enrollment criteria. Results In MyLymeData, women reported more tick-borne coinfections, worse symptoms, longer diagnostic delays, more misdiagnoses, and worse functional impairment than men. No differences were reported in antibiotic treatment response or side effects. In our review, of clinical research trials and data sources, we identified a smaller percentage of women in studies of acute Lyme disease and a larger percentage of women in studies of persistent illness. Samples and data sources that were more reflective of patients seen in clinical practice had a higher percentage of women than randomized controlled trials and post-treatment Lyme disease studies. Conclusion Our results indicate that biological sex should be integrated into Lyme disease research as a distinct variable. Future Lyme disease studies should include sex-based disaggregated data to illuminate differences that may exist between men and women with persistent illness.

Comparison of the Efficacy of Longer versus Shorter Pulsed High Dose Dapsone Combination Therapy in the Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease/Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome with Bartonellosis and Associated Coinfections

“…Among those who did not go into full remission, 60% of women (3/5) and 53.3% of men (8/15) also improved by 30% or greater, with 2 women and 2 men both having improvements ranging from 5–15%. In a recent study by Johnson et al, using self-reported clinical data from 2170 patients in the MyLymeData patient registry [ 157 ], the authors found no differences in antibiotic treatment response or side effects between women and men. We found similar results and agree that biological sex should be integrated into Lyme disease research as a distinct variable since male and female hormones can be affected by Borrelia burgdorferi [ 50 , 158 , 159 ].…”