Long COVID: New study reveals more symptoms including hair loss and erectile dysfunction

Long COVID is often associated with persistent fatigue and brain fog following a bout of coronavirus.

A new study has found however that the set of symptoms associated with the illness is wider than first thought.

It found long COVID sufferers have, among other symptoms, been suffering from hair loss and loss of libido, as well as erectile dysfunction in men.

Using the anonymised health records of around 2.4 million people in the UK, researchers found patients who had a record of COVID-19 infection reported some 62 symptoms more frequently 12 weeks after the initial infection than those without a record of infection.

The research, conducted by researchers from the University of Birmingham, alongside clinicians and researchers across England, studied 486,149 people with prior infection, against 1.9 million people with no indication of having had coronavirus.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, also uncovered demographic groups that are at greater risk of developing long COVID.

The persistent symptoms spotted by the researchers are split into three categories: respiratory symptoms, mental health and cognitive, and then a broader range of symptoms.

The most common are the loss of the sense of smell, shortness of breath, chest pain, and fever.

But some of the common symptoms have thus far not been widely associated with long COVID, including erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, hair loss, and sneezing.

Other surprising findings include amnesia, apraxia (the inability to perform familiar movements or actions), loss of bowel control, hallucinations, and swelling of the limbs.

"This research validates what patients have been telling clinicians and policymakers throughout the pandemic, that the symptoms of Long Covid are