This European Respiratory Society/Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand statement outlines a review of the literature and expert opinion concerning the management of reproduction and pregnancy in women with airways diseases: asthma, cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF bronchiectasis. Many women with these diseases are now living into reproductive age, with some developing moderate-to-severe impairment of lung function in early adulthood. The statement covers aspects of fertility, management during pregnancy, effects of drugs, issues during delivery and the post-partum period, and patients’ views about family planning, pregnancy and parenthood. The statement summarises current knowledge and proposes topics for future research, but does not make specific clinical recommendations.

Coexistence of infertility and asthma has been observed clinically. Therefore, we investigated the association between asthma and delayed pregnancy in a nationwide population-based cohort of twins.A cohort of 15 250 twins living in Denmark (aged 12-41 years) participated in a questionnaire study including questions about the presence of asthma and fertility. Differences in time to pregnancy and pregnancy outcome were analysed in subjects with asthma, allergy and in healthy individuals using multiple regression analysis.Asthma was associated with an increased time to pregnancy, the percentage of asthmatics with a time to pregnancy .1 year was 27% versus 21.6% for non-asthmatics (OR (95% CI) 1.31 (1.1-1.6); p50.009). The association remained significant after adjustment for age, age at menarche, body mass index and socioeconomic status (OR (95% CI) 1.25 (1.0-1.6); p50.05), and was more pronounced in those .30 years of age (32.2% versus 24.9%, OR (95% CI) 1.44 (1.1-1.9); p50.04). Untreated asthmatics had a significant increased risk of prolonged time to pregnancy compared to healthy individuals (OR (95% CI) 1.79 (1.20-2.66); p50.004), while asthmatics receiving any kind of treatment for asthma tended to have a shorter time to pregnancy than untreated asthmatics (OR 1.40; p50.134).Asthma prolongs time to pregnancy. The negative effect of asthma on fertility increases with age and with disease intensity, indicating that a systemic disease characterised by systemic inflammation also can involve reproductive processes. @ERSpublications Asthma prolongs time to pregnancy: the negative effect of asthma on fertility increases with age and disease intensity

Evidence is increasing of an association between asthma and aspects of female reproduction. However, current knowledge is limited and furthermore relies on questionnaire studies or small populations. In a prospective observational cohort study to investigate whether time to pregnancy, the number of fertility treatments, and the number of successful pregnancies differ significantly between women with unexplained infertility with and without asthma.245 women with unexplained infertility (aged 23-45 years) underwent questionnaires and asthma and allergy testing while undergoing fertility treatment. 96 women entering the study had either a former doctor's diagnosis of asthma or were diagnosed with asthma when included. After inclusion they were followed for a minimum of 12 months in fertility treatment, until they had a successful pregnancy, stopped treatment, or the observation ended.The likelihood of achieving pregnancy was lower in women with asthma compared with those without asthma: median total time to pregnancy was 32.3 months in non-asthmatic women versus 55.6 months in those with asthma, hazard ratio 0.50 (95% confidence interval 0.34-0.74) p<0.001.Women with asthma had fewer successful pregnancies during fertility treatment, 39.6 versus 60.4% ( p=0.002). Increasing age was of negative importance for expected time to pregnancy, especially among asthmatic women (interaction between age and asthma on time to pregnancy, p=0.001). Female asthmatics had a longer time to pregnancy and less often became pregnant than non-asthmatic women. Increasing age reduced the chances of conceiving especially among asthmatic women. The causal relationship between asthma and subfertility remains unclear. @ERSpublications Asthma can be a cause of subfertility: increasing time to pregnancy and decreasing successful number of pregnancies

Early menarche appears to be associated with increased risk of asthma. Hormonal, immunological, genetic and environmental factors may act in a developmental context to explain this relationship. Future studies are warranted to further determine the mechanisms responsible for this observation.

Asthma may be associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and possibly patients with PCOS have a more severe type of asthma. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to summarize evidence of a coexistense of PCOS and asthma using the available literature. The search was completed on 01.01.2016. English language articles were retrieved using the search terms 'Asthma' AND 'PCOS', 'Asthma' AND 'systemic inflammation', 'Asthma' AND 'metabolic syndrome', 'asthma' AND 'gynaecology', 'PCOS' AND 'systemic inflammation', 'PCOS' AND 'metabolic syndrome', 'PCOS' AND 'allergy'. Five papers meeting prespecified search criteria were found of which two were registry studies of relevance. The current literature supports a coexistense of PCOS and asthma and gives us an indication of the causes for the possible link between PCOS and asthma. Further research in the area must be conducted to determine the exact nature and magnitude of the association.