Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effects of hormone therapy (HT) administered to postmenopausal
women on pulmonary function tests (PFT). Methods: Eighty-two postmenopausal women who were having natural or surgically initiated
menopause and had no risk factor that could affect the respiratory system were included
into this prospective, randomized study. Twenty-five women who refused to use HT were
assessed as the control group (Group I). Nineteen women who accepted using HT and
who were having surgically initiated menopause were given continuous estrogen (Group
II), 23 were given continuous estrogen and progesterone in combination (Group III)
and 15 were given cyclic estrogen and progesterone combination (Group IV).
Forced expiratory volume (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC, forced expiratory flow rate over 25–75% of the forced vital capacity volume
and peak expiratory flow rate were assessed at the beginning of the treatment and
in the third month in order to evaluate the effects of HT regimens on the women’s
PFT. Results: A statistically significant increase was observed only in the FEV1 and FVC parameters of Group III after three months of therapy (P<0.05). The comparison between pre- and posttherapy FEV1 and FVC values showed an increase in the Group IV, but the difference was not statistically
significant, while there was no difference between basal and third month FEV1 and FVC values of the group receiving estrogen only. Conclusions: It was seen that particularly continuous combined HT regimen positively affected
the FEV1 and FVC parameters of the postmenopausal women.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 26,
2004
Received in revised form:
January 13,
2004
Received:
August 19,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
