Hormone replacement therapy could drastically increase women odds of suffering asthma attacks. HRT drugs may not only trigger asthma in women who never suffered it, but also make the symptoms of asthma far worse, warn Danish researchers. Millions of women worldwide are presently given HRT to relive the symptoms of menopause.
In their latest research a team from the Danish Paediatric Asthma Centre and Danish Cancer Society investigated the statistics of more than twenty-three thousand women, noting if they were prescribed with HRT and for how long. They also investigated whether women in HRT group had ever hospitalized for asthma attack.
The study revealed women on HRT for three years were thirty percent more prone to be hospitalized for asthma attack. While, those taking HRT for more than three years were at higher risk by thirty-five percent and those taking the drugs for more than ten years were more prone to need hospital treatment by fifty percent.
For the first time the latest study marks that HRT has been shown to put sufferers at threat of having a serious attack, which requires hospitalization. There have been constant suspicions over the potential side-effects of the drugs ever since US report related them to breast cancer, heart disease and strokes.
According to study leader Dr Klaus Bønnelykke from the DPAC, earlier study has suggested a connection between asthma and female sex hormones, particularly HRT. Their findings expand this to severe asthma exacerbations. If a patient develops asthma or has a severe worsening of symptoms after taking HRT, they should stop hormone therapy altogether.
There is extensive substantiation signifying an association between female hormones, the development of asthma and its sternness. But it is too early to say exactly how taking HRT affects asthma symptoms, explained director of research Leanne Metcalf from the charity Asthma UK. Women should be concerned about their treatment to contact their GP.