Abstract
Objectives
The respiratory responses in the few previous studies evaluating the effects of short-term
unopposed estrogen therapy on breathing in postmenopausal women have been inconsistent.
We performed a study to investigate whether long-term estrogen therapy would prevent
age-related decline in nocturnal arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation and whether higher
serum estradiol concentration is associated with better arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation.
Methods
Sixty-four healthy postmenopausal women were followed-up for 5 years in a 5-year prospective
open follow-up study. The women were users or non-users of estrogen therapy according
to their personal preference.
Results
Mean overnight arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation was similar at baseline (94.3 ± 1.1%) and after follow-up (94.5 ± 1.6%). Present estrogen users had higher mean arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (95.2 ± 1.4%) than present non-users (94.0 ± 1.5%), when adjusted for age and body mass index (p = 0.042). The change in mean arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation during follow-up was
not associated with serum estradiol concentration at baseline but associated with
estradiol at follow-up (p = 0.042), when adjusted for age and body mass index. At follow-up, women with higher
serum estradiol concentration had also higher mean nocturnal arterial oxyhemoglobin
saturation (Pearson r = 0.29, p = 0.019) and lower apnea-hypopnea index (Spearman r = −0.28, p = 0.031). The pooled current estrogen users spent proportionally less time with SaO2 below 90% than non-users (ANCOVA adjusted for age and BMI, p = 0.017).
Conclusions
Estrogen use and especially high serum estradiol concentration predict higher mean
overnight arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation. The present data suggest that estrogen
therapy has favorable respiratory effects.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 24,
2006
Received in revised form:
March 14,
2006
Received:
December 19,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
