Early Periods and Breathing Problems

"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw." A similar cause and effect relationship is present with young girls who start their period at age 10 or younger. They may go on to have lung capacity issues.

Another chain of events seems to take place when a female baby is in a compromised uterus. Two things, not necessarily in this order, take place: Asthma develops and early onset of her menstrual cycle.

Young women with asthma may start their menstrual cycle early

Ferenc Macsali, lead author of the study and part of a multi-centre study called the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) his team studied women with birth issues and breathing conditions.

"Other studies have shown that many women who experienced early menstruation had a low birth weight." Macsali added, "This unfavorable intrauterine environment is possibly related to poor fetal lung development, which will affect this person over their whole life."

Researchers believe the substandard inuterine environment prior to birth effects her whole life. "The link between lower lung function, asthma and early menarche goes back to birth", Macsali explains.

In Depth

• 3,354 women aged between 27 and 55 and found that women with asthma or substandard lung function as adults generally started their periods before or at the age of 10.
• These women were more likely to be from large families in southern Europe.
• They also tended to be overweight, smoke cigarettes or are around family members who smoke.