Women who go through the menopause have nearly double the risk of suffering respiratory diseases such as asthma, but could protect themselves by taking HRT, research suggests.

Rates of asthma were found to nearly double in menopausal women compared with normally menstruating women, an effect attributed to falling oestrogen levels during and after the menopause.

The studies, presented yesterday to the annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Stockholm, are the first to show that the hormone has an important role to play in lung protection and repair.

Problems with breathing and reduced lung function were particularly pronounced for those women who were very thin or overweight.

Although the exact protective role of oestrogen is not yet known, the findings suggest that women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may avoid some of the problems.

Francisco Gomez Real from the University of Bergen, Norway, who led the research, said: “Women who have not menstruated in more than six months have more respiratory symptoms and lower lung function.” This can be explained by the fact that although oestrogen is reduced in all women following menopause, thinner women have the lowest amounts.

At the menopause, the fat cells become the primary source of oestrogen, and women who have more fat cells have higher levels of the hormone, which seem to protect the lungs.

In very overweight women however, other factors come into play. Larger women are known to be at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Asthma and lung function are also reportedly worse in these women and so the high levels of the protective oestrogen are less relevant.

“What is important now is that menopausal women are told by their doctors that they are at risk of deteriorating lung health,” Dr Gomez Real said.

The study, which is expected to be published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, involved more than 1,300 menopausal women aged between 45 and 55 from nine European countries and America.

The women completed a questionnaire about their respiratory health and menstrual cycle and received practical assessments of their lung functions, including spirometric testing, which measures lung capacity. A total of 21 per cent were taking HRT.

Previous research, involving a larger proportion of older women, nearly half of whom who were taking HRT, has suggested that menopause actually reduced asthma.

The findings suggest that the therapy could cancel out potential respiratory problems caused by less oestrogen, Dr Gomez Real said.

He said that the latest findings were “just the beginning of the research”, and recommended that women take more care of watching their weight, and sticking to “an optimum weight with a body mass inded of 25.”

Exposure to pesticides may lead to asthma in farmers, research suggests. A study presented at the European Respiratory Society Annual Congress in Sweden showed that more than 16 insecticides, fungicides and herbicides, many in common use, are strongly linked to an increase in asthma. Six products have already been removed from the market, but nine others, including captan, diazinon and coumaphos are still widely used. Coumaphos, a fungicide, was found to have the greatest association with asthma, which affects more than 5 million people in the UK.

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