Does hormone therapy increase allergic reactions and upper gastrointestinal problems?: Results from a population-based study of Swedish woman. The women’s health in the Lund area (WHILA) study

Abstract

Objectives: To delineate the use of various drugs particularly pertaining to allergy and upper gastrointestinal problems in relation to hormone status in middle aged women. Methods: An analysis from a population-based study on women born between 1935 and 1945 and lived in the Lund area southern Sweden. Of 10766 women, 6917 provided complete data sets; in turn 5673 were assessed for the use of medication in this study. Among the cohort, 9% of women were premenopausal (PM), 54% were postmenopausal without hormone replacement therapy (PM0) and 37% were current hormone replacement therapy users (PMT). Results: There were 7 (1.3%) women in PM, 11 (0.4%) in PM0 and 21 (1.0%) in PMT group who used loratadine regularly. There was a significant difference between the PM and PM0 groups and also between the PM0 and PMT groups in the use of loratadine ( P<0.05). Among 21 loratadine users in PMT group 4 (19%) used transdermal patches and 17 (81%) used oral HRT. The result for omeprazole use was as follows: 4 (0.8%) of PM group, 39 (1.3%) of PM0 group and 42 (2.0%) of PMT group. The use of omeprazole was significantly higher in the PMT group than in the PM ( P=0.05) and PM0 group ( P<0.05). There was no relation between the use of omeprazole and smoking or alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Use of hormone replacement therapy seems to be related to a higher frequency of omeprazole and loratadine use, which implies that hormone replacement therapy, may be associated with more upper gastrointestinal symptoms as well as allergy.