Airwaves
- Wisia Wedzicha, Editor in Chief
MENSTRUAL CYCLES, HORMONES AND ASTHMA
Women of reproductive age are more likely to be admitted to hospital for asthma than men, as pointed out by Forbes in his editorial which comments on two papers in this month’s Thorax on the association between asthma and female sex hormones. This observation has precipitated research on the link between asthma and the female sex hormone cycle, but the results of studies have been inconsistent. In this issue we publish two papers on this topic. Brenner and colleagues explore the relation between the phase of the menstrual cycle and presentations with acute asthma to the emergency department. In contrast to previous suggestions, they found no relation between asthma exacerbations and the perimenstrual phase. They conclude that both preovulatory and perimenstrual phases act as co-factors, worsening other triggers of acute asthma. As maternal sex hormones can theoretically influence the developing fetal immune …
