HOW IS TESTOSTERONE LINKED TO ASTHMA??

Researchers have known for a while that pre-adolescent boys have higher rates of asthma than same-age girls, but this switches during puberty so that teenage girls and women have higher rates of asthma than teenage boys and men. We also know that sex hormones affect the immune system’s response to allergens and that estrogen increases inflammation throughout the body. Since twice as many women suffer from asthma, scientists believed that estrogen was the driving factor behind the higher incidence of asthma in women. But recent research shows that testosterone suppresses the inflammatory response involved in asthma, suggesting that the male sex hormone plays a larger role in the disparity of asthma between men and women than was previously thought.

P.S. Women can better manage asthma by remembering that hormonal fluctuations affect airway inflammation and tracking their asthma symptoms throughout the month with extra awareness during ovulation and menses.

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