Hair loss and a reduced sex drive are among are two of eight new symptoms affecting people with long Covid, a new study suggests.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics in June, two million people in the UK are suffering from long Covid.

The study found that while the most common symptoms include loss of smell, shortness of breath and chest pain, others include amnesia, an inability to perform familiar movements or commands, and hallucinations.

Patterns of symptoms tended to be grouped into respiratory symptoms, mental health and cognitive problems, and then a broader range of symptoms.

New long covid symptoms

As well as hair loss and reduced sex drive, the study says other symptoms include:

• Amnesia
• Apraxia
• Bowel incontinence
• Erectile dysfunction
• Hallucinations
• Limb Swelling

Senior author Dr Shamil Haroon is associate clinical professor in public health at the University of Birmingham.

He said: “This research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policy makers throughout the pandemic – that the symptoms of long Covid are extremely broad and cannot be fully accounted for by other factors such as lifestyle risk factors or chronic health conditions.

“The symptoms we identified should help clinicians and clinical guideline developers to improve the assessment of patients with long-term effects from Covid-19, and to subsequently consider how this symptom burden can be best managed.”

NHS list of Covid symptoms

The NHS list of common Covid symptoms includes fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, and brain fog.

Anuradhaa Subramanian, research fellow at the Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham and lead author of the paper, said: “Our data analyses of risk factors are of particular interest because it helps us to consider what could potentially be causing or contributing to long Covid.”

She added: “Women are, for example, more likely to experience autoimmune diseases. Seeing the increased likelihood of women having long Covid in our study increases our interest in investigating whether autoimmunity or other causes may explain the increased risk in women.

“These observations will help to further narrow the focus on factors to investigate what may be causing these persistent symptoms after an infection, and how we can help patients who are experiencing them.”

The findings are published in Nature Medicine.

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