ISRN AllergyVolume 2014 (2014), Article ID 131092, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/131092
Review Article
Elisabeth Juul Gade,1,2 Simon Francis Thomsen,3 Svend Lindenberg,2 andVibeke Backer1
1Respiratory Research Unit, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Bispebjerg University Hospital, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
2Copenhagen Fertility Center, Infertility Clinic, Lygten 2C, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
3Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg University Hospital, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
2Copenhagen Fertility Center, Infertility Clinic, Lygten 2C, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
3Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg University Hospital, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
Received 10 February 2014; Accepted 18 March 2014; Published 27 March 2014
Academic Editors: S. Burastero and G. Riccioni
Copyright © 2014 Elisabeth Juul Gade et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Reproductive changes such as impaired fertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes have been related to female asthma. We recently found that time to pregnancy is prolonged in asthmatic females especially in women with moderate to severe asthma and in those above 30 years of age. Despite their reproductive difficulties the asthmatics ultimately conceived just as many biological children as healthy throughout their reproductive lives. This knowledge therefore raises questions about how asthma affects fertility pathophysiologically. The purpose of this review is to describe the existing knowledge in this field and suggest hypotheses of causal relationships, which may form the basis for future studies in this field. The aim is, in particular, in the literature to examine whether there is any evidence to suggest that the systemic inflammation that characterizes asthma, can affect fertility. The issue is potentially clinically important for asthmatic, infertile individuals and society because treatment of the general systemic inflammation associated with the asthmatic disease combined with hormone stimulation might be the optimal target for an effective infertility therapy, possibly decreasing the need for in vitro fertilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment