Women who start their period early and have irregular cycles are more likely to get asthma, new research suggests.
Menstruating for the first time before 11 years old puts girls at a greater risk of suffering from the inflammatory airway disease, a study by the University of Edinburgh found today.
Self-reported irregular menstruation also raises women’s risk of experiencing certain asthma symptoms, such as breathlessness and coughing, within the past year, the research adds.
Early periods and irregular cycles are both associated with anovulation, which is defined as the ovaries not releasing an egg.
This causes periods of excessive oestrogen exposure, which could lead to asthma due to the hormone’s inflammatory effect, according to the researchers.
Asthma affects around one in 12 adults and one in 11 children in the UK, and kills approximately three people every day.
Starting periods early and having irregular cycles increases women’s risk of asthma (stock)
HRT is linked to adult-onset asthma
Results further reveal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is linked to an increased risk of women developing adult-onset asthma.
HRT replaces hormones lost during the menopause, with some women claiming it eases their symptoms.
The therapy’s hormonal effects have previously been linked to asthma.
Perhaps surprisingly, overweight women who do not smoke and have had, or are having, HRT are less likely to develop the inflammatory condition.
The researchers note the explanation for this is likely too complicated to be down to a single reason.
Hormonal oral contraceptives were not found to be associated with asthma in the study review.
Speaking of the findings, Dr Erika Kennington, head of research at Asthma UK, said much more research is needed.
She added: ‘The best way for women to avoid hormones affecting them is to manage their asthma well, by taking their medication exactly as prescribed, using their written asthma action plan and correctly using their inhaler.’
How the research was carried out
Some 64 studies investigating how asthma and allergies relate to puberty, menstruation, menopause, hormonal contraceptives and HRT were included in the review.
The studies, which were published between January 1990 and November 2015, had a total of 554,293 participants.
The findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Irregular menstruation increases the risk of asthma symptoms, such as breathlessness (stock)
Relying on just one type of inhaler may reduce asthmatic women’s fertility
This comes after research released yesterday suggests women with asthma who use only short-term reliever inhalers, which are often blue, are 30 per cent more likely to suffer from infertility.
Whereas female sufferers who take preventer inhalers, which contain steroids, have the same pregnancy prospects as non-asthma patients, a study found.
Relying just on relievers, which open up the airways, also causes women to take 20 per cent longer, on average, to become pregnant, the research adds.
Infertility was defined as taking more than a year to conceive despite having regular, unprotected sex.
Lead author Dr Luke Grzeskowiak from the University of Adelaide, said: ‘Five-to-10 per cent of all women around the world have asthma and it is one of the most common chronic medical conditions in women of reproductive age.
‘Inhaled corticosteroids suppress the immune system, whereas short-acting asthma treatments do not alter immune function.
‘In women who are only using relievers it’s possible that, while their asthma symptoms may improve, inflammation may still be present in the lungs and other organs in the body, including the uterus’.
Infertility affects around 11 per cent of women and nine per cent of men of a reproductive age in the US. In the UK, approximately one in seven couples have trouble conceiving.