Gender-Specific Treatments
At this point, you know a few things about your asthma. The first is that it’s a chronic condition. That means that it’s a condition you’ll have to manage for the rest of your life. The second is that asthma often develops in early childhood. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t develop asthma as an adult. Frequent exposure to irritants, certain chemicals, and even substances increases the general public’s risk of developing asthma later in life. The last thing is that asthma affects the genders differently.
Gender Differences with Asthma
Childhood asthma affects more boys than girls. That doesn’t mean that girls don’t have childhood asthma. They do. But the rate that this happens is much lower than boys. At some point, this changes.
When Does This Happen?
Puberty! Right around the onset of puberty, we notice a drastic increase in girls with asthma. We don’t know why this happens, but we think that hormones are the culprit.
Hormones and Asthma
Both genders have sex hormones, and sex hormones play a crucial role in your asthma. In males, the sex hormones suppress asthma. We see the opposite with females. Their sex hormones aggravate asthma.
A Gender Approach to Managing Your Asthma
Before we go on, we have to say that this approach is more of a proposed treatment option. Considering that gender differences exist, gender-specific treatment options would target the different hormones.
How it Works
Our bodies naturally create DHEA. DHEA may help because it contains androgens. Both males and females have androgens. But, males have more androgens. We believe that androgens play a role in asthma suppression.
Things to Consider
Before you run out to your local health store, you should consider that:
- We don’t know what effects it can have on your asthma
- Long-term use can cause heart failure
- Higher doses have lower therapeutic effects