• Posted September 10, 2024

Asthma Could Raise Miscarriage, Infertility Risks for Women: Study

Having asthma appears linked to raised odds for miscarriage and troubles with fertility among women, new Danish research shows.

“We found that women fulfilling the definition of asthma had a higher rate of fetal loss and an increased use of fertility treatment. The more severe the asthma and the more flare-ups the women experienced, the more likely they were to need fertility treatment," said study lead author Dr. Anne Vejen Hansen. She works in the department of respiratory medicine at Copenhagen University Hospital.

Her team presented its findings Tuesday in Vienna at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

The new study focused on data from almost 770,000 Danish women born from 1976 to 1999 and then tracked from 1994 to 2017, during their prime reproductive years.

Women who had asthma were more likely to experience a miscarriage than women without the respiratory illness, with rates of 17% and 15.7%, respectively.

They were also more likely to have a medical record showing that they'd had to try a fertility treatment: 5.6% of women with asthma did so, compared to 5% of women without asthma.

However, it seems that most women with asthma did end up overcoming these hurdles and went on to bear a child: 77% of women, regardless of their asthma status, became mothers, the study found.

“It’s reassuring that women seem to have the same live birth rate, regardless of their asthma," said one outside expert, Dr. Lena Uller. She is chair of the ERS group on Airway Pharmacology and Treatment and Head of the Respiratory Immunopharmacology research group at Lund University in Sweden.

"However, the results also indicate that women with asthma should take into consideration potential reproductive challenges in their family planning," Uller said in an ERS news release. "If women with asthma are worried about their fertility, they should speak to their doctor."

As to how asthma might interfere with fertility and pregnancy, that's still unknown, Hansen said.

"It might be related to systemic inflammation throughout the body, including women’s reproductive organs," she theorized.

Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Lung Association has more on asthma and pregnancy.

SOURCE: European Respiratory Association, news release, Sept, 10, 2024