Menopausal asthma-much ado about nothing? An observational study.

Objective: Menopausal asthma is considered a distinct asthma phenotype. Our aim was to identify potential specific features of asthma in postmenopausal women in a cohort of Polish females. Methods: Asthma severity and control, pulmonary function, exhaled nitric oxide (FENO), peripheral blood and induced sputum (IS) differential cell count were compared in three groups: women with premenopausal asthma (group 1), menopausal women with pre-existing asthma (group 2A) and menopausal women with asthma onset in the perimenopausal or menopausal period (group 2B). Results: We enrolled 27 women to group 1, 13 to group 2A and 16 to group 2B. Asthma severity and control, blood eosinophil count and FENO did not differ among the groups. Menopausal women had a higher incidence of irreversible airway obstruction (84.6% in group 2A and 56.2% in group 2B vs. 22.2% in group 1, p < 0.001 and p = 0.03, respectively). The proportion of patients with sputum eosinophilia was highest in menopausal women with pre-existing asthma, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (88.9% in group 2A vs. 66.7% in group 2B and 65.0% in group 1, respectively, p = 0.86). Conclusions: Menopausal women with asthma are characterized by an increased incidence of irreversible airway obstruction regardless of disease duration. This may indicate that age may contribute to pulmonary function impairment in asthmatic women independently of their hormonal status at the time of asthma diagnosis. Our results failed to confirm the presence of specific asthma features which would allow to distinguish the phenotype of menopausal asthma.