A study published this week in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine talks about the different manifestations of asthma depending on gender. During childhood, the disease is more prevalent and more severe among males. After puberty things change the other way round, and the condition becomes more common in girls.

Kelan Tantisira, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital told Reuters Health that "This is the first study to prospectively examine the natural history of sex differences in asthma in this manner."

1,041 asthmatic children between 5 and 12 years old were tested annually over a nine-year period. Each of them had undergone eight to nine annual methacholine challenges. This is a substance which can trigger asthma. When it came to the amount of methacholine it took to provoke airway constriction, the girls’ reactivity did not change substantially over the years. Boys’ reactivity on the other hand changed, as they became tolerant to larger and larger doses of methacholine over the years, thus showing that their disease had partially gone away.

"Persistence of airway responsiveness [AR] -- commonly referred to as twitchy airways -- is a major reason why asthma in girls may persist (or develop) past the onset of puberty," Dr. Kelan G. Tantisira also told Reuters.

By the age 18, 14 percent of the girls made a little progress regarding their tolerance, compared to 27 percent of the boys.

Jorrit Gerritson, M.D., Ph.D. wrote in an editorial: “It will be of great interest to follow these children over time to see what happens with AR and severity of asthma in adulthood.”