'The Pill' May Reduce Asthma Symptoms
FRIDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Women with asthma may notice that their asthma symptoms get worse at certain times of the month. Now, a new study confirms that fluctuating female hormone levels appear to affect airway inflammation, but oral contraceptives might help ease those changes.
In women who were not using birth control pills, the study found that increased levels of estrogen were associated with decreased levels of exhaled nitric oxide -- indicating decreased airway inflammation. In these same women, increased levels of progesterone were associated with increased levels of exhaled nitric oxide, indicating increased airway inflammation.
However, birth control pills lessen dramatic hormone fluctuations, and researchers didn't find differences in asthma symptoms throughout the month for women who took them.
"This study is a first step in looking at the relationship between hormones and asthma," said the study's lead author, Dr. Piush Mandhane, an assistant professor of pediatric pulmonology at the University of Alberta in Canada. The findings might be of use in managing asthma among premenopausal women, the researchers said.
"Among women not on oral contraceptives, we did have changes in exhaled nitric oxide that were related to estrogen and progesterone levels. We didn't have an association with estrogen and progesterone in women on oral contraceptives," said Mandhane.
Results of the study are published in the November issue of the journal Chest.
Mandhane said that because many women report a change in asthma symptoms related to menstrual cycles, it's often assumed that there is an association. But, he said, the relationship between hormonal fluctuations and asthma symptoms hasn't been well-studied.
The current study included 17 women. Eight were on birth control pills that contained estrogen and progesterone. The average age of the women using oral contraceptives was 25.5, while the average age of the women not taking birth control pills was 37.5.
Three of the women in the group not on birth control reported experiencing menstrual-cycle related asthma prior to the study, while just one woman in the birth control group did.
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