There are suggestions that the loss of female sex hormones following menopause is critical for the development or progression of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). We conducted a review of the literature on the role of menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in SDB risk. There is an increase in SDB during the menopausal transition period, but data on an effect beyond that of increasing age and changes in body habitus are weak or absent. Early community-based, observational studies reported a protective effect by HRT on SDB prevalence, but this could possibly be explained as a healthy user effect. Interventional studies of the effect of HRT on SDB are sparse, with only a few randomized placebo-controlled studies, often performed on small samples of women without clinically significant SDB. HRT regimens have varied and all the studies are fairly old. They do not definitely assure the alleviation of SDB and HRT cannot thus be recommended as treatment for SDB. It is concluded that there is no evidence that female sex hormone changes during menopause per se are able to explain the increase in SDB in midlife women and conclusions on the effect of HRT on SDB cannot be drawn from the current literature.

有建议认为，更年期后女性性激素的流失对于睡眠呼吸障碍（SDB）的发生或发展至关重要。我们对更年期和激素替代疗法（HRT）在SDB风险中的作用进行了文献综述。在更年期过渡期中，SDB有所增加，但是关于影响年龄增长和身体习性改变的影响的数据很少或没有。早期基于社区的观察性研究报道，HRT对SDB患病率具有保护作用，但这可能可以解释为健康的使用者作用。HRT对SDB的影响的干预研究很少，只有少数随机安慰剂对照研究，通常是在没有临床意义的SDB的女性小样本上进行的。HRT方案多种多样，所有研究都还很老。他们没有明确保证减轻SDB，因此不能推荐HRT作为SDB的治疗方法。结论是，没有证据表明绝经期间女性性激素的变化本身能够解释中年女性中SDB的增加，并且无法从现有文献中得出有关HRT对SDB影响的结论。