Woman and Smoking

God created women to represent beauty, love and purity on earth, give birth to human progeny and mother the human race. Woman, with her power of will, have reached the pinnacle of social and professional success today. Her intellectual genius and worth do not require any testimony but physically she remains as delicate and requires purity for her healthy survival. She is always supposed to be immaculate in every aspect that is why smoking cessation is all the more necessary for her as nicotine has worst consequences on women. Many researches have discovered that women are more susceptible to nicotine and have a slower metabolic cleaning system of nicotine from their body than men.

Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor that tightens blood vessels and restricts blood causing permanent damage to arteries. We have already read about the affects of smoking on human body and mind. The women, who smoke, suffer all the corollaries of tobacco use, like the way men do, as for example, increased risk of various cancers like lung, larynx, pharynx, mouth, kidney, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, and bladder and respiratory diseases. But to add on to the list of jeopardy women smokers are 12 times more prone to die from lung cancer than women who do not smoke. Also,- women smokers are ten times more likely to die from bronchitis and emphysema. Post-menopausal women and women on birth-control pills are at the top of the ‘risk chart' because smoking-related diseases can cause them death. Medications like Chantix are available; to help in quit smoking by overcoming the withdrawal effects like cravings for a smoke.

There is accurate awareness on many health risks of tobacco or cigarette smoke that are solely related to women. Let us know the affects of smoking which are unique to women and realize why smoking cessation is necessary;

Smoking affects on Menstruation, Menopause

• Smoking women experience unusual vaginal discharge or bleeding in most of the cases.
• The components of nicotine in the female body increase the frequency of secondary amenorrhea or absence of menstruation as well as irregularity of periods.
• Smoking women reach natural menopause at least two years earlier than non-smokers or those who quitted smoking.

Smoking affects and oral contraceptives

• Women who are smoking and using oral contraceptives are ten times more at risk of heart attack and stroke compared to those who are smoking but not taking contraceptives.
• They are more at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as blood clots.
• As the risk increases with age, the use of oral contraceptive is not recommended to a woman who is smoking and is over 35.

Smoking affects on Hormones

• The benefits of Estrogen replacement therapy are many times negated by the increased cardiovascular and other health risks associated with cigarette smoking
• Smoking women are at more risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke during the use of estrogens
• Please let your doctor know about your tobacco before beginning hormone replacement therapy.

Smoking affects and Infertility

• Many studies proved that smoking women have reduced fertility.
• Smoking women were found to take more than one year to conceive.
• Recent researches have represented the fact that the fertility of smoking women was 72% then that of non-smokers.

Smoking & Libido

• During sexual arousal, the labia, clitoris, and vagina also swell up with blood enhancing sensation and arousal. As nicotine restricts blood flow that have a negative effect on sensation and arousal.

Smoking affects on Pregnancy

• Tobacco chemicals passed to fetus from the blood stream of pregnant mothers.
• Smoking during pregnancy results in preterm delivery, premature rupture of membranes, placenta previa, miscarriage, neonatal death.
• The birth weight reduction depends on the quality of cigarettes a woman smokes during pregnancy; the more she smokes during pregnancy, lower the birth weight.
• Recent studies refer to the reduction of the flow of blood in the placenta due to nicotine, which limits the amount of nutrients that reach the fetus.

Smoking affects on Infant health

• Cigarette smoking increases the chances of sudden infant death syndrome including infant and prenatal deaths.
• Babies born to smoking mothers suffer from learning disorders, attention deficit disorder and disruptive behavior.
• Infants, whose mothers smoked during the time of pregnancy, have the same nicotine levels in their bloodstream as smoking adults. They go through nicotine withdrawal syndrome during their initial days of life.
• Babies born to smoking mothers are on average 200 grams (8 ozs) lighter than babies born to non-smoking mothers.
• Toddlers born to smoking mothers experience more ear aches, respiratory problems, colds, and illnesses requiring pediatrician visits compared to children born to nonsmoking mothers.

Not only a woman is victimized by tobacco use and cigarette smoking, the well-being of her baby is also endangered. If you understand the reasons behind the unquestionable necessity of quit smoking , there are many anti-smoking medications available, and Chantix is one of those medications that can be a boon, to the woman as well as her child.