Older age at natural menopause may increase asthma risk

Key takeaways:

• Women with a younger age at natural menopause were less likely to develop asthma.
• The study excluded current smokers, providing a more valid association.

Later age at natural menopause may be a risk factor for asthma, potentially due to prolonged estrogen exposure, data from a longitudinal study show.

“Clinicians should be mindful of asthma risks in postmenopausal women, especially those with later onset of menopause,” Durmalouk Kesibi, MA, a doctoral student at York University School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada, told Healio. “Monitoring for respiratory symptoms in this population could enable earlier detection and management of asthma. Understanding the relationship between age at natural menopause and asthma risk also reinforces the importance of considering hormonal factors in managing and advising on asthma in postmenopausal women.”

For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data from 14,406 women aged 45 to 85 years who had a natural menopause and were followed for 10 years as part of the prospective Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. The mean age of women at baseline was 61 years; most women were white. All women were nonsmokers at baseline and did not have asthma prior to menopause.

Researchers stratified women by four categories of age at natural menopause: ages 40 to 44 years; ages 45 to 49 years; ages 50 to 54 years and age 55 years and older. Primary outcome was asthma incidence after age at natural menopause.

The mean and median ages at natural menopause were 50.7 and 51 years, respectively. During follow-up, 5.08% of women reported developing asthma; incidence was 2.82 per 1,000 person-years.

Compared with women who had natural menopause between the ages of 50 and 54 years, researchers observed a 30% decreased risk for asthma among women who had natural menopause between the ages of 40 and 44 years (HR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.49-0.95)

“Future studies should investigate the specific mechanisms by which estrogen influences asthma risk, possibly through prospective studies that measure hormone levels over time,” Kesibi told Healio. “Further research could also explore whether interventions that modify hormone levels or metabolic factors, such as BMI, can reduce asthma incidence in this population.”

For more information:

Durmalouk Kesibi, MA, can be reached at durrak@my.yorku.ca; X (Twitter): @Durra737239.