title: Sex differences in cough reflex.
abstract: Majority of patients visiting cough clinics are postmenopausal women, who are affected by intractable cough for years. Why the cough reflex becomes exaggerated in women is not known. Basic research excludes females from the studies contributing to the sex bias which may be responsible for lack of understanding of "hypersensitive" cough in women. Biological and behavioural differences between women and men are the factors affecting cough physiology. Gender also shapes the patterns of behaviour and determines the character of environmental exposures which differs between sexes. The article offers an insight into the physiology of the cough, differences in the maturation of it and biological, social and behavioural factors contributing to the sex differences in cough.
authors.affiliation: Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Department of Pathophysiology & Division of Neuroscience BioMed Martin, Slovakia. Electronic address: plevkova@jfmed.uniba.sk.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Plevkova
authors.affiliation: Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Department of Pathophysiology & Division of Neuroscience BioMed Martin, Slovakia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Buday
authors.affiliation: Comenius University in Bratislava, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Department of Pathophysiology & Division of Neuroscience BioMed Martin, Slovakia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kavalcikova-Bogdanova
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physiology, EA3450 DevAH, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lorraine, France; Department of Pediatric Lung Function Testing, Children Hospital, CHRU Nancy, France.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ioan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physiology, EA3450 DevAH, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lorraine, France; Department of Pediatric Lung Function Testing, Children Hospital, CHRU Nancy, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Demoulin-Alexikova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003371:Cough / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
keywords: Cough; Gender differences; Hormones; Hypersensitivity