Quality of life and asthma control related to hormonal transitions in women's lives.

Objectives: The aim was to investigate if menstruation and use of exogenous sex hormones influence self-reported asthma related quality of life (QoL) and asthma control.
Methods: The study is based on two asthma cohorts randomly selected in primary and secondary care. A total of 622 female patients 18-65 years were included and classified as premenopausal ≤ 46 years ( n  = 338) and peri/postmenopausal 47-65 years ( n  = 284). Questionnaire data from 2012 and 2014 with demographics, asthma related issues and sex hormone status. Outcome measures were Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (Mini-AQLQ) and asthma control including Asthma Control Test (ACT) and exacerbations last six months.
Results: Premenopausal women with menstruation related asthma worsening, perimenstrual asthma (PMA) (9%), had a clinically relevant lower Mini-AQLQ mean score 4.9 vs. 5.8 ( p  < 0.001), lower asthma control with ACT score < 20, 72% vs. 28% ( p  < 0.001) and higher exacerbation frequency 44% vs. 20% ( p  = 0.004) compared with women without PMA. Women with irregular menstruation had higher exacerbation frequency than women with regular menstruation ( p  = 0.023). Hormonal contraceptives had no impact on QoL and asthma control. Peri/postmenopausal women with menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) had a clinically relevant lower Mini-AQLQ mean score compared to those without MHT, 4.9 vs 5.4 ( p  < 0.001), but no differences in asthma control.
Conclusion: Women with PMA had lower QoL and more uncontrolled asthma than women without PMA. Peri/postmenopausal women with MHT had lower QoL than women without MHT. Individual clinical management of women with asthma may benefit from information about their sex hormone status.