Over the last few decades, women’s health has slowly shifted closer to the forefront of research.1 There have been multiple major campaigns at academic, charity and government level, for the improvement of women’s health globally. In 2021, the UK government implemented the Women’s Health Strategy to improve the health of women in the UK over 10 years and Asthma and Lung UK published their report on asthma in women, highlighting how women with asthma have worse asthma-related outcomes compared with men.2 3 Increasing volumes of evidence show that specific hormone-related events during a woman’s lifespan can lead to worse health outcomes, including lung health.4–6 For example, the risk of asthma increases after menarche in girls and menstruation and pregnancy are associated with worse respiratory-related symptoms.4 Menopause has been associated with a number of chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, but there has been conflicting evidence regarding the influence of menopause on respiratory diseases.7 8

In this issue of Thorax, Gai et al (enter reference) build on previous work by conducting a comprehensive study investigating the association between early menopause and lung health and mortality. The authors were specifically interested in how the cause of menopause (ie, the gradual natural decline or the sudden drop-off of oestrogen, due to oophorectomy) and smoking status may modify the relationship between early menopause and lung health and mortality in smokers and never-smokers. The authors also investigated the …