I was worried about having MAC and saw a pulmonologist, but I didn't have it. I was having repeating lung infections about every other month and had excess phlegm that kept building up until it turned into an infection. When I had prior surgery, I was asked to put Mupiroicin (Bactroban) antibiotic ointment in my nose for a couple weeks as a precaution against staff infections, and I had tried this for the lung infections and it worked. My doctors gave me prescriptions for the ointment and I used it every time this happened. I have asthma and allergies and none of my treatments were controlling the phlegm. I read some literature that said that women are more prone to asthma because of estrogen that causes fluid accumulation in the body, and that after menopause, asthma improved. I am on bio-identical hormone replacement, and asked my doctor about this and he said this could be the cause of my issues with excess phlegm in my lungs. It was not just my lungs, but body wide fluid accumulation. I've been on hormone replacement for a while and as a test, stopped it completely for a month and the excess phlegm cleared up and I was breathing better again. My doctor has lowered my estrogen dose and it seems to have taken care of the issue. Often I just take half the dose. I'm mentioning this for anyone else because the excess phlegm sets up a good place for germs to grow, and my doctors missed this connection until I asked about it. If you are a woman who already has a lung infection, this could just add to the problems.