Women with asthma may take more time to get pregnant and have a lower pregnancy rate than those without the lung diseases, informed Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj, gynaecologist and obstetrician, Nurture IVF Centre, on the basis of a new international research.

96 per cent of women with unexplained fertility issues are determined to have asthma. About 60 per cent of women without asthma got pregnant, compared with just under 40 per cent of those with asthma, the study showed. The gap between the two groups increased with age, according to the study published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj emphasised that we have seen here that asthma appears to affect fertility as it increases with time to pregnancy and more with age.

Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj from Nurture IVF Centre, urged women with asthma to conceive at an early age and step up their asthma treatment before getting pregnant.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder due to inflammation of the airways in our lungs. Some of the common symptoms of asthma include breathlessness, chest tightness, and night cough among many. Often the affected person finds it extremely difficult to breathe.

In early age boys suffer from asthma almost twice than girls do. However, this ratio gets reversed as they grow up. Pre-pubertal girls suffer from severe asthma attacks as the hormones change. The peak is observed at menopause when women are twice likely to suffer from asthma as compared to men of the same age.

What make asthma so severe in women are the reproductive hormones. When it comes to women and asthma, the ability to breathe can be affected by menstrual cycle, pregnancy and eventually menopause. Creating awareness among patients is as fundamentally significance as adherence to treatment might. It is important that women take utmost care when conceiving, informed Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj.

Dr. Randeep Guleria, head of department, pulmonology and sleep disorder at AIIMS says, “Women having asthma must be careful as they suffer a severe form of asthmatic attack when compared to men. This is majorly due to the female hormonal changes. This make asthma more severe in women and ability to breathe can be affected by menstrual cycle, pregnancy and eventually menopause. Women needs to be very careful of asthma triggers like use of biomass fuels (for cooking), passive smoking, smoking, alcohol consumption and other environmental factors along with their fluctuating hormones, during different time of month. To further compound the problem, asthma in women is a much stigmatized condition.”

Dr Guleria said, “Women with asthma are looked upon as people with lifelong compromised health. But asthmatic women can get pregnant and have a normal delivery. Inhalation therapy for asthma is recognized as the most preferred form of treatment worldwide, with developed countries like USA and UK adopting inhalers as an integral part of asthma therapy. This therapy is so safe and easy to use for expecting mothers and women who are breastfeeding. It is important to note that asthma is not a transmitted disease. As opposed to oral therapy, inhalers are highly effective, safe and cost effective not only for women but any asthmatic patient. In India, however, due to many myths and beliefs about inhalation therapy being common, the use of oral corticosteroids is rampant.”