premenstrual asthma: what it is and how to treat it

A high percentage of women suffer physical and psychological changes during menstruation and in their previous days. The intensity of these variations is a condition called premenstrual syndrome .

This syndrome type has three characteristics:

• Is cyclic
• Symptoms occur during the luteal phase of the cycle, that is, from ovulation to the rule, and / or after ovulation
• When severe, it affects the quality of life and daily activity of women who suffer from it

Premenstrual Asthma: What It Is

In this premenstrual period, many women suffer from an aggravation of diseases that already suffer. If this occurs in women with asthma, this is what we call premenstrual asthma , that is, they worsen the clinical symptoms of asthma, such as coughing, wheezing or wheezing, chest tightness or feeling of shortness of breath, as well as deterioration of respiratory capacity , detected with peak flow meters or spirometers.

Premenstrual asthma affects 45% of women of childbearing age and reaches a significant degree of severity in 4% of asthmatic women of childbearing age. In these cases, patients more frequently visit hospital emergency rooms, require hospital admissions and more corticosteroids and antiasthmatic medication.

Currently, the causes of premenstrual asthma are unknown. The specialists in Pneumology consider that it is due to hormonal factors, although the investigations that we have done in collaboration with hospital centers have not been able to demonstrate it.

Advances in the treatment of premenstrual asthma

Currently, the best way to treat it is unknown.. During the premenstrual phase more medication is needed and, in the majority of women with premenstrual asthma, medications that are commonly used to treat asthma do not function properly.

There is evidence of improvement with exogenous sex hormones , ie, estrogens, progesterone and analogues of gonadotrophins. Despite this, other lines of research have not detected these benefits and, in fact, some authors find in some patients a deterioration of asthma with the taking of contraceptives. It is also known that many women with premenstrual syndrome improve with phytoestrogens, a natural biological product derived from soy. The utility of this product has been suggested in patients with premenstrual asthma, although currently specialists in Pneumology do not have studies that support the use of this product with this indication.