Hormones

[yaf_user681_26664]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you could share your experiences with me as to whether your hormones affect your asthma and if so, at what times of the month is your asthma is worse (?h and ihave you found anything that helps?

Bit of background....

I'm 29, and after 25 years of no A&E visits for asthma, I had my first hospital admission for asthma this month. I was in hospital for 10 days and have been out 2 weeks today however I'm recovering pretty slowly - my lungs seem to be supersentive to any allergens (I'm safe in my bedroom in my parents house and that's about it at the moment!). I've had a few dips since I got out of hospital (including another day in A&E) and I'm trying to work out what might be triggering set-backs. I think the A&E day trip was around ovulation and that I had another dip on day one of my period.

Are these times of the month other women find there asthma getting worse? Has anyone found anything to help prevent your hormones triggering your asthma? (Unfortunately I can't have the combined hormonal pill because of a history of focal migraines, and can't take the progresterone only pill because of gastric reflux).

Thanks!

MissS

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Mu understanding is that asthma in women can be affected by hormones. As someone who is peri-menopausal at the moment I have noticed an increased sensitivity to certain triggering factors, though at the moment this is affecting my rhinitis more than my asthma. I'm fairly certain, however, that there have been studies showing that women in their forties and fifties can experience an increase in asthma symptoms, or indeed experience asthma symptoms when they have never had them before. Anyone else out there shed more light on this.

I think the Knowledge Bank on this website may have more on this - under Triggers.

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I find my chest tends to get worse before my period - I have other issues too, my GP tries to avoid periods as much as possible with me because of that.

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One other thing I have found occurring over the past twelve moths, but which I forgot to mention previously, is a reoccurrence of eczema - something which I have not suffered from for decades. Given the timing of its reappearance I have put that down to hormonal changes.

[yaf_user681_26664]

Hi Maggie and Emma,

Thank you so much for replying. Maggie thank you for pointing me toward knowledge bank aw well - I had a read in the triggers section & it was helpful. I read somewhere else last night (sorry I can't remember where), that asthma in terms of the monthly cycle - it tends to get worse in the days just before the period begins, and then eases on the first day of menstruation. It was interesting that even if hormones weren't a trigger previously, they can become one after an exacerbation.

Maggie I hope the rhinitis and eczema settle down.

Thanks again for your help.

[juliesharp]

Yes hormones can affect asthma. When I had psuedomenustrations I used to spend those 10 days in hospital with bad asthma each month. I even had an extra preventer inhaler and steriods as part of asthma plan for those ten days each month.

Thankfully my two consultants gave me HRT and monthly asthma admissions ended.