When Breathing Isn't Easy: The Facts About COPD

Health Center - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung disease most often caused by smoking, limits the amount of oxygen you can take into your bloodstream and the amount of carbon dioxide you can be breathe out. Traditionally considered a man's disease, today, more women have COPD than men. Learn about the symptoms of COPD and what treatment options are available in this health center.

When Breathing Isn't Easy: The Facts About COPD

woman suffering from COPD COPD, Women and You

The news that you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may have hit you like a ton of bricks. But the reality is that you're at least one step ahead—you've received your diagnosis, something millions of women with COPD have yet to do. One reason? COPD, a lung disease that includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema or both, has traditionally been considered a man's disease. Not anymore.

Today, more women have COPD than men, with an estimated 6.7 million women diagnosed with the disease, compared to about 3.8 million men in 2000. Not only that, but the prevalence of COPD is increasing among women while decreasing among men. Plus, more women die every year from the disease than men.

The news isn't new; these changing demographics were first published in 2002. Yet, 10 years later, many television ads and educational materials continue to portray COPD as a man's disease. Many health care practitioners are still more likely to diagnose COPD in men than women, even when a woman has all the signs and symptoms of the disease.

Why is this a problem?

Earlier diagnosis and starting long-term treatment can improve control of symptoms. COPD is a partially reversible disease, and may be easier to reverse when diagnosed early.

COPD and Women

One proposed reason women have begun overtaking men with COPD is because we started smoking later than they did, and smoking is the major cause of COPD. It can take 20 years or more from the time one starts smoking before the disease appears.

Of course, smoking isn't the only risk factor for COPD. Long-term exposure to lung irritants such as secondhand smoke, chemicals, dust or workplace fumes (think smoky bar or stinky factory) are also linked to COPD.

Other possible causes include low birth weight, early childhood infections and genetic factors. Close to 100,000 Americans have a genetic condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin, or AAT deficiency that has been linked to COPD.

So now that you know why you got COPD, let's talk more about what happens with COPD.

copd screener

Could you be at risk for COPD? More than twenty-six million Americans have COPD, but only half have been diagnosed. Take a brief screener to learn if you are at risk.