[Bronchospasm in the Stein-Leventhal syndrome]

A female patient with Stein--Leventhal syndrome has been followed up for six years. The course of the disease was characterized by attacks of bronchial obstruction markedly related to the menstrual cycle. The patient was seen before during and after normal pregnancy and normal delivery. The bronchial spasm was resistant to the ordinary antiasthmatic treatment but responded well to progesterone treatment. The role of the female sex hormones in the pathogenesis and clinical characteristics of bronchial asthma is discussed. The bronchospasm in this particular case is accepted as a clinical manifestation of the basic disease. The case is presented because of the diagnostic difficulties and the clinical masks of allergic pulmonary diseases--bronchial asthma, asthmatic bronchitis, etc. in Stein--Leventhal syndrome wrongly and ineffectively treated.