Table 3.
Sex differences and sex steroid effects in lung diseases
| Disease | Clinical sex differencea | Hormone effects |
Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical |
Experimental |
|||||
| Alleviates | Exacerbates | Alleviates | Exacerbates | |||
| Allergic rhinitis | Boys > girls | 140, 495 | ||||
| Women1 ≠ men, controversial | T (Th1 shift) | E2 (Th2 shift), P4? | 146–148 | |||
| Asthma | Boys > girls | T (dysanapsis) | 92–94, 100 | |||
| Women > men | T P4 | E2 (Th2 shift) | E2, P4 | T | 43, 93, 98, 99, 101, 102, 122, 174, 175, 177, 396 | |
| COPD | 185, 188 | |||||
| Airway | Women > men | E2? | 203 | |||
| Emphysema | Men > women | P4 | 202, 360, 364 | |||
| PH | Women > men | E2, P4 | E2, P4 | T | 237, 238, 241–243, 256, 412, 414, 434, 441, 496 | |
| PF | Men > women | E2, T | E2, T | 231, 232, 235, 406 | ||
| CF | Boys≈girlsb and men≈women | E2 | 273–275, 277, 278 | |||
| Lung cancer | ||||||
| Adenocarcinoma | Women > men | P4 | T, E2 | 228, 355, 356, 375 | ||
| Squamous cell | Men > women | |||||
E2, Estradiol; P4, progesterone; T, testosterone; ?, clinical data is limited but suggestive.
a
Refers to what is observed clinically in human patients and to distinguish this difference from animal models of disease using male vs. female specimens, because they do not always correspond with what is observed clinically.
b
Although CF incidence shows little sex difference, girls are usually at higher risk for infection and mortality.