Is Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome A Postmenopausal Disorder?
Ahmed S. BaHammam1, 2, *, Aljohara S. Almeneessier1, 2, 3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 13
First Page: 51
Last Page: 54
Publisher ID: TORMJ-13-51
DOI: 10.2174/1874306401913010051
Article History:
Received Date: 24/07/2019Revision Received Date: 21/09/2019
Acceptance Date: 15/10/2019
Electronic publication date: 15/11/2019
Collection year: 2019

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Previous studies have assessed the role of gender and menopause in Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). It is well known that menopause is a major risk factor for OSA. However, analogous studies on obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (OHS) are limited. Recent studies have suggested that OHS is more prevalent in postmenopausal women. Moreover, women with OHS seem to have excess comorbidities, including hypothyroidism, hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, compared to men. In the present perspective, we discuss recent data on the prevalence and comorbidities associated with OHS in women, as well as the use of noninvasive ventilation in women with OHS, and try to answer the question, “Is OHS a disorder of postmenopausal women?”