Asthma Symptoms may vary during Menstrual Cycle

AFRIK UPDATE

Health

                                 

Some women may have more or fewer asthma symptoms, such as coughing and wheezing, depending on their time of the month, a new study suggests.

Researchers 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 findings could improve doctors' treatment of women with asthma.

  

The menstrual cycle "is a very important cycle… with all the biological changes and physiological things that happen," said Dr. Samar Farha from the Cleveland Clinic, who studies asthma and other respiratory diseases but wasn't involved in the new research.

"(Some) asthmatics describe that just before their menses, they get a worsening of their symptoms," 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.

Estrogen may affect the lungs directly, the researchers said. Insulin resistance and markers 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, "and 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,

Not all asthmatics will notice those changes.

For women whose symptoms do get a little worse at certain times of the month, it's also unclear whether that ever puts them in serious danger
"It could lead to more personalized therapy, based on where their symptoms are getting worse, in which phases of their menstrual cycle,"

Source:Reuters