No decision has been taken yet on whether she will be placed on the transplant waiting list, Dr Holm said. The palace said her doctors had started the process towards an evaluation for lung transplant surgery.
In Norway, there are usually between 20 and 40 patients on the waiting list for a lung transplant and Princess Mette-Marit will not be given preferential treatment if she is placed on the list, local media reports.
Although she is not yet on a donor list, Dr Holm said her healthcare team was “undertaking the necessary preparations to ensure that [a transplant] will be possible when the time comes”.
The palace said Princess Mette-Marit had “an increasing need” for rest and a targeted exercise regimen.
However, she had “expressed a strong interest in continuing to carry out her duties”, it added in a statement on Friday. Her royal duties and engagements will adapted to her ongoing health issues.
Dr Holm described pulmonary fibrosis to reporters as a “dangerous disease” that often could not be seen because it depended on how sick an individual was.
At rest, they might be able to breathe normally, he explained, but when they exert themselves – through exercise, for example – their lungs “can no longer keep up”.