CLEVELAND, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — Almost 1-in-10 women who get COVID-19 while pregnant will develop long COVID, suggests a recently published study.

Prior research showed that pregnant women infected with the virus were more likely to suffer hospitalization and death, and that COVID-19 in pregnancy also carries a higher risk of stillbirth and preterm birth.

The nationwide study, co-led by the University of Utah Health, was conducted as part of the National Institutes for Health RECOVER project, the largest U.S.-based study on long COVID. The study was among the first to look at the relationship between prenatal infection and long COVID.

The study looked at 1,502 American women from December 2021 to September 2023 who had been sick with COVID-19 for the first time while pregnant, and had long covid symptoms at least six months after infection.

More than half — 61% of participants — had their first infection after December 2021, when the omicron variant was dominant. About half, 51.4%, were fully vaccinated before they became infected, the study said.

The most common long COVID symptoms were tiredness after exertion (77.7%), fatigue (76.3%) and gastrointestinal symptoms (61.2%).

Obesity, a history of anxiety or depression and treatment with oxygen during an acute COVID-19 infection were linked to an increased likelihood of developing long covid, researchers said.

“Our results highlight that people who were pregnant when they got COVID-19 may have significant long-term symptoms after pregnancy, like fatigue even after simple activities that they did before the infection,” said senior author Dr. Vanessa Jacoby, director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.

Findings were published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Many otherwise healthy women experience a host of symptoms that can mimic long COVID in pregnancy and early postpartum, making diagnosis difficult, said senior author Dr. Torri Metz, vice chair of research of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Utah Health.

Previous estimates of long COVID rates following infection in the general population range from 10% to over 20%, putting the researchers’ results on the lower end of the risk spectrum.

But the high prevalence of long covid, including in pregnant populations, emphasizes that caretakers should keep an eye out for its symptoms, Metz said.

“We need to have this on our radar as we’re seeing patients,” said Metz said in a news release. “It’s something we really don’t want to miss. And we want to get people referred to appropriate specialists who treat long COVID.”

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