Women suffering from asthma take longer to conceive, a latest study by Danish researchers reveals.
The research published in the 'European Respiratory Journal' states that asthmatic women get pregnant late but give birth to same average number of babies as mothers without the respiratory condition.
The researchers at Bispebjerg University Hospital, Denmark, analyzed the date taken from a cohort study of more than 15,000 twins, aged between 12 and 41 years. They were divided into two groups, asthmatic and non-asthmatic. The participants were asked about asthma and the time they have been trying to get pregnant. Approximately 955 participating women suffered from asthma.
The study found that nearly 21 percent of the women without the respiratory condition got pregnant a little late compared to 27 percent of women with asthma. For those not taking the treatment for asthma, the chances of conception prolonged to 30.5 percent and dropped to 23.8 among those who sought medical treatment.
"There is an association between asthma and infertility due to an increased time to pregnancy," said lead researcher Dr Elisabeth Juul Gade, of the Respiratory Research Unit at Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, according t o WebMD.
The researchers also found that older women too tend to conceive late compared to younger women. Around 32 percent of women above 30 years of age had to wait longer to get pregnant while only 24 percent of those below 30 conceived late.
"Our results shed light on the complex interactions between fertility and asthma. Although we observed women with asthma experiencing longer waiting times to pregnancy, our findings suggest that if women take their medication and control their asthma, they can reduce this delay," Dr. Gade said.
"As the negative effect of asthma on fertility is reduced by treatment, we can assume that the systemic inflammation characterized by asthma may account for the effect on delaying fertility," Dr. Gade explained. "Despite the delay, our overall results suggest that women with asthma had the same number of children, which is due to the fact that they tend to conceive at an earlier age compared to those without, getting a head start on their reproductive life."
