Anyone with experience of hormone replacement therapy impacting their asthma?
Hi,
I'm curious if others have experience with HRT (hormone replacement therapy) impacting their asthma.
I'm a 55-year-old woman and have had asthma since I was a child. I would say that it has mostly been well controlled in that by taking medication (asthma and allergy) and avoiding triggers, I would only have a few flare-ups a year, and these were generally recovered from within a couple of weeks using prednisone and antibiotics.
In October of 2021 I started hormone replacement therapy, at the time when I researched this and spoke to my doctors there was no concern about impact to my asthma.
However, and I've just noticed the possible connection, I've had four significant flare-ups that take months to recover from and am currently 3 months into a flare-up.
I've found some reports and read some articles here about the fact that HRT can worsen asthma and am now questioning if I should continue the HRT (it has helped me in other areas). I have plans to review all this with my doctors, so am not looking for medical advise, but am wondering if anyone else has taken HRT and whether it impacted their asthma.
Thank you.
Interesting topic, thanks for taking the time to highlight this connection. I'm going to discuss the HRT and asthma connection with our editorial team and see if we can't research and get some articles published on this topic. I was able to find one article that briefly touches on HRT, When to Seek Medical Help| Asthma.net. All the best, Lauren (Team member) 
I have not been through HRT but, as you consider your options with your doctor, maybe there are alternatives that can help some of your symptoms while eliminating the increase in asthma flares. Not sure what you're taking, but I'm thinking about topical products vs. oral or systemic ones. Please keep us posted, I'm very interested to hear where this goes. Sorry you're struggling, hope you can find a solution! -Melissa, team member
Update: After speaking with my doctors (primary care and the hormone doctor) I have discontinued the hormone therapy. My primary care doctor thought it might just be correlation but was going to look at the study further, the hormone doctor was leaning more toward there being a connection and stated that she'd seen studies that indicate women who are still cycling tend to have more astma attacks during the part of their cycle where estrogen levels are higher.
I'm not sure I'll ever know if the hormones played a role or not as just discontinuing them may only prevent it from getting worse, but I do feel as though given the information I have it is the correct decision for me at this time.I'm glad you took the time to talk this out with your care team. Ultimately, we always have to weigh the benefits against any risks or side effects, and you have to do what you feel is best. I do hope that you can manage those frustrating hormone-related issues ... maybe supplements or more natural remedies could help you avoid the difficulty breathing? Just brainstorming. Wishing you all the best! -Melissa, team member
