Influence of three phases of menstrual cycle on pulmonary functions
*Dimple Arora, *Parminder Kaur, **Mohit Arora and ***Urmil Gupta
*Department of Physiology, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar (INDIA) **Department of Orthopedics, Fortis-Escorts Health Care Centre, Amritsar (INDIA) ***Department of Physiology, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla (INDIA)
ABSTRACT
Menstrual cycle is an integral part of life of women. There is widespread agreement that changes in the levels of estrogen and progesterone associated with menstrual cycle also affect different systems of the body. Levels of estrogen and progesterone are maximum in the secretory phase and minimum just before the menstruation. The purpose of this study was to confirm the probable effects of female hormones on lung functions in normal women in different phases of menstrual cycle. The study included 40 females in the age group of 15- 45 years. Pulmonary function tests were done in these study subjects in all the three phases of menstrual cycle namely follicular, secretory and menstrual. The mean value of lung function tests i.e. FVC, FEV1, PEFR, FEF 25-75%, PEF 200-1200 in secretory phase were significantly higher than in menstrual phase (p<0.005). The PFTs in menstrual phase were even lower than in the follicular phase (p<0.04). It was concluded that respiratory parameters of women in reproductive age group show significant variation during different phases of menstrual cycle.