Severe catamenial asthma

[shadyshaderton]

HiI have severe catamenial asthma which is being very unpredictable and debilitating ATM. Steroids and home nebs are just about keeping me out of a&e ATM. I've just started. Ryequo dyer being on prostap to control periods. Wandering what else anyone else with this has tried?

Thx

[Pipsqueak77]

Hi shadyshaderton

I really sympathise with you!

My asthma is def affected by my hormones even though my docs won’t really acknowledge this as a trigger!

I don’t have a lot of advice however when I have long term problems I take a contraceptive pill to prevent my periods happening at all for a while! This seems to help reset things a little and calm down my asthma.

I appreciate this is not the answer for everyone but maybe it’s something you could consider?

Interested to hear others advice on this topic too…

Good Luck 😊👍

[shadyshaderton in reply to Pipsqueak77]

Hi thanks for responding. The ryequo tablet I referred to puts you in a chemical menopause similar to being on the pill continuously. There's limited research (quelle surprise) and its taken years for me to get it on my medical records that .one of the causes of my severe asthma is catamenial.

My advice is to keep a diary of your asthma symptoms and periods to take with you to appointments. mine always got worse during ovulation and days 1-3 menstruation. Would be always these times when I would end up in a&e. Now it's when the meds I'm on are less efficacy. If you haven't seen it this is good article blog.asthmaandlung.org.uk/b....

[My_fairy in reply to shadyshaderton]

Thanks for sharing this experience. I am struggling aswell how to get this for doctors to understand as a trigger for my teenager daughter. I would appreciate if you could share on how you got this task my daughter experiences bad asthma symptoms at the same time you mentioned around ovalution and prior to starting her periods aswell as on her periods 1-3 days.

I will keep a diary to share with the consultant but atm my daughter doesn’t want to take pill as she wants to keep it natural so there’s hardly any other treatment.

Appreciate your advice. Sorry I can’t add much as I am struggling to get the right information.

[shadyshaderton in reply to My_fairy]

Hi keeping diary as said above on everything peak flow am and pm, use of ventolin when and cause if known e.g. sports, weather pollen, time of month along with cycle. I use my therapy app to record it all, as creates graphs etc. basic advice don't give up keep showing them the evidence til they hear you. Could always highlight the blog I shared above as well to help con.

[Pipsqueak77 in reply to shadyshaderton]

Hi shadyshaderton

Thanks for your interesting reply…

I do keep some rough details of flares/causes but probably not in depth enough so I will try to keep a better diary.

I have been on biologics for about 4yrs now and I think they do ‘ muddy the waters’ a little when it comes to identifying some triggers. So I will have to be mindful of this.

I just wish medics were more receptive to this as a possible cause of difficult asthma, maybe then we would not necessarily need so many medications to keep things under control. Especially at younger ages.

I am not far off of menopause so 🤞this may alleviate my problems. Otherwise ( from my limited reading) and others comments it would seem that a hysterectomy is a possibility, albeit a bit of a drastic one.

😊👍

[Wheezykat]

hi

I had this type of asthma, I had all the treatment and was ending up in ICU every month so in the end I had to have a hysterectomy at age 29. This took away that element to my asthma and although I still have severe asthma with home nebs etc my admissions have been reduced from 12 a year to 1 or 2 I can now control most attacks at home and I’m perfectly fine in between attacks. I have other issues and having the surgery was a last resort as it got to the point where my lungs weren’t recovering between attacks and therefore they were getting worse month on month. The thing that causes the issue is the rise of progesterone I believe. The only permanent cure s menopause but that is extreme although I do believe now that can be drug induced for a certain length of time which may provide some respite. I’m sorry I have no other options for you but I do understand totally what you’re going through. This was 14 years ago now so there is likely more options available now. Xxxx

[shadyshaderton in reply to Wheezykat]

Sorry you've been thru the mill, I am in chemical menopause. Hysterectomy has been discussed for Endo rather than asthma but there's complexities to it for me. Never is anything straight forward 😆