{"id":480476,"date":"2026-02-14T23:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480476\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T23:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T23:42:29","slug":"what-midlife-women-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480476\/","title":{"rendered":"What Midlife Women Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asthma<\/a>, a common lung condition that causes wheezing and trouble breathing by narrowing airways, has long been considered a childhood disease. And it\u2019s likely you knew someone growing up who brought an inhaler to school since asthma is the most common<\/a> chronic disease in children.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t the whole truth: Some people get adult onset asthma<\/a>, which makes itself known later in life. And it\u2019s a something midlife women need to know about because women are overall more likely to get to be diagnosed with adult onset asthma than men, and it can be more persistent and harder to control.<\/p>\n

\"Night<\/a> <\/p>\n

This is because the way women women experience asthma differs from men, according to Dr. Erin Gordon<\/a>, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at UCSF Health. Not only do women tend to have more frequent, severe attacks that require hospitalization, but they are also more likely to have their symptoms dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring asthma attacks, women tend to have more severe airway inflammation and may experience more intense symptoms relative to objective measures of lung function,\u201d Gordon told Flow Space. \u201cIn other words, a woman might feel absolutely terrible and have significant respiratory distress, even when her spirometry numbers don\u2019t look as bad as those of a man with similar test results who feels less symptomatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

One challenge with the condition is that there isn\u2019t a great way to screen people for it beyond monitoring those with certain risk factors (more on that below). This means that many women don\u2019t receive help until asthma has already impacted their quality of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not routinely screening asymptomatic women in this age group to predict who will develop asthma,\u201d explained Gordon. \u201cUnlike mammograms or bone density scans that are part of routine midlife health maintenance, there\u2019s no equivalent screening program for asthma risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a study<\/a> published in last month in the journal Nature Communications identified a new way to accurately predict asthma attacks up to five years in advance\u2014by looking at specific biomarkers in the blood.<\/p>\n

Researchers analyzed the medical records of over 2,500 people with asthma by using metabolomics, a way to measure small molecules in the blood called metabolites. They found that the ratio of two metabolites called steroids and sphingolipids present in the blood could predict asthma attack risk over five years. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really stands out is that ratios between pathways\u00a0outperformed single metabolites and also outperformed many traditional clinical indicators,\u201d Dr. Kartik V. Shenoy<\/a>, professor of thoracic medicine and surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, told Flow Space. \u201cThis suggests the key signal may be a biological \u2018imbalance\u2019\u00a0between inflammatory lipid signaling (sphingolipids) and the patient\u2019s own steroid biology rather than an abnormality in only one pathway.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, Shenoy said there are several study limitations to consider and that the findings still need to be validated, so women likely won\u2019t be able to take a blood test that tells them if they have an increased risk for quite a while. In the meantime, here\u2019s what midlife women need to know about adult onset asthma.<\/p>\n

Who Is Most Likely to Get Adult Onset Asthma and What Causes It?<\/p>\n

According to Gordon, certain midlife women are more likely to get adult onset asthma and to experience more severe symptoms.<\/p>\n

History of Allergies<\/p>\n

Women with a history of allergies\u2014which includes eczema<\/a>, food allergies and hay fever\u2014are more likely to get it because their immune systems are more likely to respond to irritants by triggering an inflammatory response. A family history of allergies also puts you at higher risk.<\/p>\n

Body Weight<\/p>\n

Being overweight or obese is another major risk factor<\/a>\u2014both for developing asthma and for the condition getting worse\u2014but Gordon said the interplay is complex. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about weight on the chest, but about how fat tissue produces inflammatory signals that affect the airways,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smoking<\/p>\n

Like other lung diseases, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease<\/a> (COPD), smoking or significant secondhand smoke exposure increases the risk of adult onset asthma.<\/p>\n

Hormonal Shifts<\/p>\n

Hormonal changes also play a major role and may explain why midlife women are more likely overall to experience adult onset asthma than men. It\u2019s common for adult onset asthma to start around perimenopause and menopause<\/a> (hormonal shifts can have a major effect on lung health)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hormones like progesterone and estrogen impact immune responses and inflammation<\/a> in the airways, which can trigger symptoms for the first time or make existing asthma more severe. Some women even report more intense flare ups during their periods.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanges in estrogen and progesterone can increase the body\u2019s immune system response and increase inflammation in the airways leading to asthma symptoms and flare ups,\u201d said Dr. Santhi Iyer-Kumar<\/a>, a pulmonologist with Keck Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n

Gordon said this also suggests these hormones may play a protective role and that their shift decreases that protection.<\/p>\n

Environmental Exposures<\/p>\n

Exposures to environmental irritants, like air pollution and chemicals, also increases the risk of adult onset asthma.<\/p>\n

Women who work in careers that require them to handle chemicals like beauty services, manufacturing, cleaning and healthcare face higher rates of adult onset asthma because of prolonged exposure to irritants. Later onset asthma can happen because of this even if a woman wasn\u2019t previously irritated by them. \u201cSometimes it takes decades of exposure before patients develop symptoms of disease,\u201d said Gordon.<\/p>\n

Gordon added that women who have several of these factors at once tend to have more frequent, severe attacks. <\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, Black and Hispanic women face higher rates of severe asthma, likely due to a combination of environmental factors, healthcare access disparities and potentially genetic factors we\u2019re still working to understand,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

How Adult Onset Asthma Is Treated<\/p>\n

One bright spot? Gordon said that adult onset asthma is very treatable and can be managed. Treatment options include daily corticosteroids that are inhaled, inhalers and bronchodilators. <\/p>\n

Women with more severe asthma can also take biologic therapies that block certain signaling proteins to reduce inflammation. Adopting certain lifestyle practices and regular visits to the doctor for monitoring are important, too.<\/p>\n

Earlier diagnosis means better management, though, and less disruption to your life. \u201cThe key is taking symptoms seriously, getting appropriate testing and working with a knowledgeable healthcare provider to find the right treatment approach,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to just live with breathlessness or accept declining activity levels as an inevitable part of aging.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to Reduce Your Risk of Adult Onset Asthma<\/p>\n

There are ways to reduce the chances of adult onset asthma, many of which are modifiable. Maintaining a healthy weight by seeking treatment for metabolic issues and following lifestyle habits like eating a nutritious diet<\/a> and getting regular exercise<\/a> helps. Quitting smoking, or never starting, does too.<\/p>\n

Taking steps to limit exposure to potential irritants like chemicals is also important. Use proper protective equipment and ventilation when using cleaning products, for example. If that\u2019s not possible, Gordon said sometimes modifying work conditions or even changing jobs entirely is necessary to protect the lungs.<\/p>\n

Look into your family history to see if anyone has a history of asthma, and let your healthcare provider know. Because this puts you at higher risk, it becomes even more important to drill down on prevention.<\/p>\n

For midlife women specifically, Kumar said, \u201chormone replacement therapy <\/a>appears protective and [may] reduce asthma onset and risk.\u201d Speak with your doctor about whether taking hormones is right for you; they can advise on the proper dosage and type while taking your medical history into account.<\/p>\n

Women also need to advocate for themselves. Gordon said too often women\u2019s symptoms are dismissed as normal parts of aging when this isn\u2019t true. For example, women are more likely to have chest tightness as a symptom, which may be misdiagnosed as a sign of anxiety. <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t dismiss persistent cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness or wheezing as just \u2018being out of shape\u2019 or \u2018getting older,’\u201d she said. If you notice any of these signs, contact your doctor for a respiratory evaluation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asthma, a common lung condition that causes wheezing and trouble breathing by narrowing airways, has long been considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[243938,4376,64,63,137,161805,15434],"class_list":["post-480476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-adult-onset-asthma","tag-asthma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-lung-health","tag-menopause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}