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Hormone Replacement Therapy and Obstructive Airway Diseases

  • Current Opinion
  • Published:
Treatments in Respiratory Medicine

Abstract

Controversy exists as to the role of female reproductive hormones in asthma and COPD and, specifically, the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on these disorders. The differential incidence of asthma over the menstrual life cycle suggests an effect of female reproductive hormones on asthma; less data are available for COPD. Estrogen and progesterone have protean effects at the cellular level, consistent with potentially harmful and beneficial effects in lung disease. Large epidemiologic studies show an increased risk of development of asthma with the use of HRT but no consistent effects on COPD. Clinical and epidemiologic studies of exacerbations are limited, but suggest either a harmful effect or no effect of HRT on exacerbations of asthma and COPD. HRT appears to increase the risk of development of asthma but is not associated with the loss of lung function characteristic of COPD. Because the development of asthma is rare in postmenopausal women, the absolute increase in risk among women without asthma is modest. Physicians may wish to avoid HRT therapy in patients with difficult to control asthma and COPD. Clinical decisions to start or continue HRT among women without asthma or COPD should be based on the effects of HRT on more common diseases such as cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and osteoporosis, non-vertebral fractures and colon cancer.

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Acknowledgments

Dr Barr was supported by a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar Award and grant HL-07427 and AI-052338 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr Camargo was supported, in part, by grant HL-63841 and AI-052338 from the National Institutes of Health. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Brenda Taveras with manuscript preparation.

The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this manuscript.

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  1. Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

    R. Graham Barr

  2. Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    R. Graham Barr & Carlos A. Camargo Jr

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Carlos A. Camargo Jr

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  1. R. Graham Barr
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Barr, R.G., Camargo, C.A. Hormone Replacement Therapy and Obstructive Airway Diseases. Treat Respir Med 3, 1–7 (2004). https://doi.org/10.2165/00151829-200403010-00001

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