Why Women Especially Should Watch Out For COPD

We’ve written before about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a rising killer of Americans, and affects an estimated 9% of the population. Even accounting for 10almonds readers probably being healthier than average, we’d bet this means it still affects at least 1 in 20 readers.

If you’re thinking “good thing that’s not me”, then do bear in mind that an estimated 50% of people with COPD don’t know it.

See also: Why Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Is More Likely Than You Think ← you can also see the symptoms of it there, and you’ll see why it often escapes notice for quite a while, sometimes years at first.

Much like how in a house with a carbon monoxide leak, the inhabitants get less and less oxygen, but usually don’t notice it.

Gender disparity

Recent research has shown that women are around 50% more likely than men to develop COPD, even if they have never smoked or smoked less.

This is very reminiscent of what we talked about recently for lung cancer, here: Why Lung Cancer Is On The Rise Even In Women Who’ve Never Smoked

Historically, it was assumed that women got it more simply because we were more vulnerable to cigarette smoke, but these statistics show that can’t be the reason.

You may be wondering about the validity of the study, the size etc, and: data from the 2020 US National Health Interview Survey was used, involving over 23,000 adults aged 40+.

In this study, women reported lower use of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco, although similar vaping rates to men, and yet COPD prevalence was higher in women (8%) than in men (6.5%).

It’s worth noting also that of the people with COPD, 26.5% of women had never smoked vs 14% of men.

Even after adjusting for other factors, female gender was linked to a 47% higher COPD risk.

What this tells us: tobacco susceptibility alone doesn’t explain the gender gap in COPD risk.

What remains a mystery: where this gender gap is actually coming from.

The researchers also note:

❝Studies have shown that primary care physicians are less likely to consider COPD in women compared with men presenting with similar symptoms, that use of spirometry can correct this bias, but that unfortunately women undergo spirometry testing less frequently than men❞

…which is unfortunately a very familiar song when it comes to things that predominantly or disproportionately affect women.

You can read the study paper itself in its entirety here:

Gender, tobacco and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: analysis of the 2020 National Health Interview Survey

(the 2020 date in the paper title makes it seem like it’s not new research, but we promise it is; this was published just two days ago at time of writing, on the 8th of May 2025, and represents a very comprehensive analysis of the pre-COVID data)

Want to learn more?

For practical advice, check out:

Seven Things To Do For Good Lung Health!

And for a very in-depth treatment of the topic, you might like this book we reviewed:

Triple Life Threat – by Donald R. Lyman

Take care!