HRT Asthma Link

Main Category: Menopause
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 24 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT


HRT has been linked to asthma, according to a new study. Menopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy are increasing their chances of developing asthma.

According to a new study, if a postmenopausal woman is on estrogen or estrogen plus progestin she doubles her chances of developing asthma.

Surprisingly, HRT has no effect on the risk of developing COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Women and men's likelihood of developing asthma changes according to age. A woman is more likely to develop asthma than a man if they are both under 50 years of age. After the age of 50 the risk is the same for men and women.

The study looked at 121,700 female nurses aged 30 to 55. The database comes from the Nurse's Health Study (USA). This study started 28 years ago.

All the participants were sent questionnaires at two-year intervals. The questions were wide ranging and included questions on hormone use, medical history, eating habits, lifestyle and several other things.

From 1988 two more questions were added. They were asked whether they had new asthma or COPD (diagnosed by a doctor).

The study found that estrogen use increased a woman's asthma risk by 2.29 times. The risk for women who took estrogen plus progestin HRT also increased the asthma incidence by 2.29 times (this is not per cent, to convert this into percent would mean an increase of 129%).

Rates for newly diagnosed COPD were identical for HRT uses and non-HRT users.

You can read about this study in The Archives of Internal Medicine (Feb 23 Issue).

They also found that new asthma risk went back to normal four years after women went off HRT.

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