Objective: To study whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or Tibolone has an effect on pulmonary function in postmenopausal women.
Methods: Seventy-five postmenopausal women without any risk factor for pulmonary disease were included in this randomized, prospective study. Fifty women had undergone natural menopause and 25 had had a hysterectomy/ooforectomy. Twenty-five natural menopause women were randomly allocated to two groups: 25 patients (Group I) were treated with Tibolone 2.5 mg/day, 25 patients (group II) with Estradiol Hemihidrate 2 mg+Norethindron Asetate 1 mg/day. Twenty-five induced menopause women were treated with 17 beta-estradiol 2 mg/day. Lung function tests including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume (FEV(1)), FEV(1)/FVC, forced expiratory flow rate over the 25-75% of the forced vital capacity volume (FEF(25-75%)), and peak expiratory flow rate (PEF) were evaluated at the beginning and 3 months after the treatment to assess the effects of HRT and Tibolone on respiratory function.
Results: Regardless of HRT types a significant difference was observed in FVC and FEV(1) after 3 months of the therapy (P=0.001, 0.0001, respectively). No significant difference was found between pre and post therapy values in the other parameters (P>0.05).
Conclusions: We determined a significant increase in FVC and FEV(1) parameters of pulmonary functions after 3 months of the therapy regardless of HRT types. Therefore, we think that HRT regimens have modifying effects on pulmonary function in postmenopausal women.