On Monday, scientists revealed that the Estrogen-only Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) might end up increasing the risk of women developing asthma post menopause.

The findings have come from a major study which involved nearly 58,000 women from across France and was carried out over a period of 12 long years, and add to the large number of proofs already available which suggest that there is a link between some female hormones and asthma.

French and Mexican researchers have been able to discover that when compared with women who have never received any form of HRT, those who did were at about 21% increased risk of developing asthma. The risk of contracting the problem, however, was most prominent in women receiving only estrogen.

"There is now a large body of evidence suggesting a link between female hormones, including the use of HRT, the development of asthma and its severity. However this is the first large-scale and long-term study to suggest that it is estrogen-only HRT which significantly increases the risk", said Leanne Metcalf, Director of Research at the advocacy group Asthma UK.