Contraceptives may reduce risk for women with asthma

By Serena McNiff
HealthDay Reporter

Wednesday, 19 August 2020 (Health Day News)-Done Contraceptive Build a barrier asthma?

New research shows that hormones ContraceptiveAltering the natural decline and flow of female hormones, it may just do it.

A study of over half a million women in the UK found that women who used hormones Contraceptive -Tablets, patches and injections-The risk of developing was significantly lower asthma Than a woman who didn’t.

Female hormones have a mysterious relationship asthma.. Asthma is more common in boys than girls in childhood, but puberty Women are at an increased risk of developing asthma and are more likely to experience serious symptoms.

All hormonal events in the female reproductive cycle-puberty, Menstruation, Pregnancy and Menopause-Some women who already have asthma have been shown to cause asthma-related spillover effects.

“We know that over 40% of women who have asthma get worse during the menstrual cycle, indicating a role for sex hormones,” said Bright Nwaru, a research author at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. It was

Yet, it remains unclear how hormones are associated with asthma in women and how hormonal contraceptives can alter that relationship.

According to Dr. Bruce Levy, Head of Respiratory and Critical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, “There has been considerable research but no definitive mechanism has been identified. Experts are aware of this phenomenon, but it’s unclear why this happens.”

Previous research on the effects of hormones contraception Studies on the development of asthma were inconsistent and were one of the first large studies to investigate this relationship.

Dr. Paul Greenberger is an Allergist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. “The focus has been on this field for many years, but it is not completely understood, so this is an interesting study,” he said.

One theory is that hormones inflammation This narrows the airways of asthmatics, Greenberger said.

Levy points out that the study cannot prove that taking hormonal contraceptives protects against asthma, but reveals a strong link.

“It’s an association, it’s unproven, and we have to present some acknowledgment that it isn’t,” Levy said.

Nwaru and a team of international researchers derived the data for this study from a large British-based health database. They tracked over 500,000 women between the ages of 16 and 45 from 2000 to 2016. Throughout the study, approximately 25,000 women developed asthma.

After adjusting the data for elements such as obesity The results of the study found that women who used hormonal contraceptives had a 30% lower risk of developing asthma than women who did not use hormonal contraceptives, which could confuse the results.

And the benefits were greater for women who used it longer-women who took hormonal contraceptives for 7 years were at a lower risk than women who used them for 3-4 years, or 1-2 years.

“This adds another layer of importance to our observations,” Levy said. “This is another line of evidence suggesting that this is not the only accidental association found by chance, but this is Contraceptive Is being used. “

The study was recently published online Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyThe authors said more research is needed to better understand the relationship between female hormones and asthma.

Nwaru’s team also added that this topic needs to be investigated through clinical trials to see if the results of this study can be confirmed in a controlled environment.

“Our findings do not suggest a change in current management guidelines for asthma, but they indicate the need for more confirmatory research. [e.g. clinical trials] To provide confirmation of the findings,” Nwaru said.

Although doctors rarely prescribe it, Contraceptive The research team suggested that further research could lead to hormone-based therapies for the prevention of asthma to prevent asthma immediately.