Some women may have more or fewer asthma symptoms, such as
coughing and wheezing, depending on their time of the month, according
to a Norwegian study.
Researchers, whose
findings appear in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine, said spikes and dips in estrogen and other hormones likely
affect the lungs and other physiological responses involved in
breathing. However, it's still unclear whether the results could improve
doctors' treatment of women with asthma.
"Respiratory symptoms varied significantly during the menstrual cycle,"
wrote lead researcher Ferenc Macsali ofHaukeland University Hospital in
Bergen, Norway, and colleagues.
Other
researchers said that while scientific studies have come to competing
conclusions, anecdotal evidence does show variations for some patients
during their menstrual cycles, which Samar Farha at the Cleveland Clinic
described as "a very important cycle... with all the biological changes
and physiological things that happen.
"(Some)
asthmatics describe that just before their menses, they get a worsening
of their symptoms," Farha, who studies asthma and other respiratory
diseases but wasn't involved in the study, told Reuters Health.
The researchers surveyed close to 4,000 women in Northern Europe who had normal periods and weren't taking birth control pills.
Along with other health and lifestyle questions, they asked women to
report when their last period started, as well as whether they'd had any
breathing-related problems in the past three days, such as wheezing or
waking up with a coughing attack.
Just under
eight percent of women in the study had been diagnosed with asthma.
Between two and six percent reported recent wheezing, coughing and/or
shortness of breath.
The researchers found that
the number of women with each of those symptoms changed depending on
where they were in their menstrual cycle.
For
example, wheezing spiked just before and after mid-cycle, which is when
they ovulate. The dip in between corresponds to peaks in estrogen,
follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone.
Complaints of shortness of breath and coughing both declined just after
women got their periods, and shortness of breath was also more rare
right before menses started.
Macsali's team saw
cyclical patterns in breathing symptoms in women with and without
asthma. What explains those patterns is still up for debate.
Estrogen may affect the lungs directly, the researchers said. Insulin
resistance and markets of general inflammation are known to vary during
the menstrual cycle, which could also play a role in when breathing
symptoms get better or worse.
"The observed
patterns in our study are most likely a result of... complex hormonal
processes," the researchers wrote. "It does not seem plausible that one
sex hormone should explain the variation in respiratory symptoms during
the menstrual cycle."
Women with asthma should
"be aware of a possibility that their symptoms are influenced by day in
cycle," Macsali told Reuters Health in an email.
Farha said that not all women will notice those changes and it's also
unclear whether they ever put them in serious danger, though it's worth
discussing with their doctor.
"It could lead to more personalized therapy," she said. —KG, GMA News
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