Long COVID after acquisition of the Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during pregnancy compared with outside of pregnancy

Metz, TD; Reeder, HT; Clifton, RG; et al., Obstetrics & Gynecology, October 2025

View Publication on PubMed

October 2025
Obstetrics & Gynecology

Short Summary

This RECOVER study looked at whether pregnant women who had the Omicron type of COVID-19 were more likely to have Long COVID than women who were not pregnant when they had the Omicron type of COVID-19. Researchers studied the symptom surveys and study visits of more than 2,400 RECOVER pregnancy participants, ages 18–45, to see if being pregnant while having COVID-19 impacted the risk of developing Long COVID. They found that about 10.2% of the participants who had COVID-19 while pregnant later got Long COVID, compared with 10.6% of the those who were not pregnant at the time of infection. This suggests that there was no real difference in the chance of getting Long COVID based on whether someone was pregnant or not when they got COVID-19. This study is important because it helps researchers better understand the risk of developing COVID-19 based on whether or not someone is pregnant.

This summary was prepared by the RECOVER Initiative.

Publication Details

DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000006067

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate whether the risk of long COVID among individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during pregnancy differs from that of individuals who were not pregnant at time of virus acquisition.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter observational cohort study at 79 NIH RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) sites. Individuals assigned female at birth aged 18-45 years with an index (first) SARS-CoV-2 infection on or after December 1, 2021, were included. The exposure was pregnancy (any gestational age) at the time of index SARS-CoV-2 infection. The primary outcome was long COVID 6 months after index infection, defined as RECOVER-Adult Long COVID Research Index score 11 or higher based on a detailed symptom survey. To account for confounding and differential selection between participants who were pregnant and not pregnant at infection, propensity score-matching methods were used to balance the groups on variables potentially associated with both pregnancy status and long COVID.

Results: Overall 2,423 participants were included; 580 (23.9%) were pregnant at index SARS-CoV-2 infection. The median age at infection was 33 years (interquartile range 28-38 years), and 2,131 of participants (90.0%) with known vaccination status were vaccinated. After propensity score matching, the adjusted long COVID prevalence estimates 6 months after index infection were 10.2% (95% CI, 6.2-14.3%) among those pregnant at infection and 10.6% (95% CI, 8.8-12.4%) among those not pregnant at infection. Pregnancy was not associated with a difference in adjusted risk of long COVID (adjusted risk ratio 0.96, 95% CI, 0.63-1.48).

Conclusion: Acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy was not associated with a differential risk of long COVID at 6 months compared with similar-aged individuals who acquired SARS-CoV-2 outside of pregnancy.

Authors

Torri D Metz, Harrison T Reeder, Rebecca G Clifton, Valerie Flaherman, Leyna V Aragon, Leah Castro Baucom, Carmen J Beamon, Alexis Braverman, Jeanette Brown, Megan Carmilani, Tingyi Cao, Ann Chang, Maged M Costantine, Jodie A Dionne, Kelly S Gibson, Rachel S Gross, Estefania Guerreros, Mounira Habli, Rachel Hess, Leah Hillier, Sally Hodder, M Camille Hoffman, Matthew K Hoffman, Weixing Huang, Brenna L Hughes, Xiaolin Jia, Minal Kale, Stuart D Katz, Victoria Laleau, Hector Mendez-Figueroa, Grace A McComsey, Igho Ofotokun, Megumi J Okumura, Luis D Pacheco, Anna Palatnik, Kristy T S Palomares, Samuel Parry, Christian M Pettker, Beth A Plunkett, Athena Poppas, Patrick Ramsey, Uma M Reddy, Dwight J Rouse, George R Saade, Grecio J Sandoval, Frank Sciurba, Hyagriv N Simhan, Daniel W Skupski, Amber Sowles, John M Thorp, Alan T N Tita, Samantha Wiegand, Steven J Weiner, Lynn M Yee, Leora I Horwitz, Andrea S Foulkes, Vanessa L Jacoby, NIH RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Consortium

Keywords

Not available