Asthma in women maybe linked to a prolonged time to pregnancy and a decreased birth rate, according to a new study.

Researchers studied 245 women with unexplained fertility problems aged between 23 and 45 years. They underwent asthma and allergy testing and questionnaires during their fertility treatment. As many as 96 women in the study had either an existing doctor’s diagnosis of asthma or were diagnosed with asthma when they entered the study.

The researchers from Bispebjerg University Hospital in Denmark monitored the women during their fertility treatment for a minimum of 12 months, until they had a successful pregnancy, stopped treatment or the observation ended. The results found that the median total time to pregnancy was 32.2 months in non-asthmatic women and 55.6 months in those with asthma.

Women with asthma also had fewer successful conceptions – 39.6 per cent achieved pregnancy in the asthmatic women compared with 60.4 per cent in the women without asthma. The results also found this trend was more apparent as

the women got older.

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