How smoking affects women’s health: myths and facts

Once upon a time, smoking was a privilege exclusively for men, but with the development of feminist and emancipatory ideas, it became intended to equalize women with them. The image of a strong, independent lady from the light hand of tobacco kings was accompanied by the same smoking cigarette in her hand. Ladies of the 21st century still smoke, despite the fact that, according to modern research, the female body is much more susceptible to the harmful effects of cigarette smoke. This stops few people: in Russia, almost 30% of the fair sex poison themselves with tobacco.

Several misconceptions about this habit and its impact on a woman’s health are common among smokers.

• Light women’s cigarettes are not so harmful to the body. This is absolutely not true, because the harm of smoking is caused not only by nicotine, cigarette smoke contains dozens of dangerous substances, regardless of their strength. The reduced content of nicotine is compensated by the smoker unconsciously — the puffs become deeper, poisonous smoke lingers inside the lungs longer. From the transition to light cigarettes, addiction does not weaken, and by reducing their number, one can even increase addiction — the smoker begins to look forward to each cigarette.
• Popular in bars and nightclubs, hookah is safe for health. Another false statement. Yes, passing through the liquid, the smoke loses most of the nicotine, but on the other hand, carbon monoxide and tar poisoning the lungs for a standard half-hour session with a hookah are released as much as when smoking two packs of cigarettes. Not only the smoker herself suffers from this, but also the people in this room: because of the large amount of smoke, passive smoking of a hookah is very dangerous. Sticky dense tobacco used in hookahs contains an increased amount of heavy metal compounds in the form of salts, which further increases the harm.
• To have a healthy baby, it is enough to give up smoking only during pregnancy. Eggs are given to a woman once and for all, they cannot be renewed, which means that even experiments with tobacco during adolescence increase the chance of having a child with abnormalities. It was not without reason that earlier it was customary for the people to protect young girls from bad habits with motivation «Her have more children». Modern researchers also confirm this: even among women who gave up smoking a year before the start of pregnancy, the risk of having children with congenital diseases was increased.
• Everyone who quit smoking gets fat quickly. Many tobacco addicts, instead of thinking about how to quit smoking, drag on another cigarette and believe that nothing can be changed, precisely because of this myth. Yes, the fear of getting fat is a very weighty argument for a woman who pays attention to her appearance, but statistics say that a little more than half of those who quit tobacco gain weight after giving up tobacco. At the same time, for the vast majority of them, the weight returns to normal after about two months on average. This is due to the fact that at first a person is looking for something to replace the ritual of smoking, and an unscheduled snack does an excellent job with this. After a while, this attraction disappears.

And now let’s read what modern science knows about women’s smoking.

• Smokers age and lose their attractiveness faster than non-smokers of the same age. This argument was the reason for the refusal of tobacco for millions of ladies. Early wrinkles, sallow dry skin, dull hair, brittle nails — all this awaits nicotine addicts. Oxygen starvation leads to increased fatigue, which causes dark circles and “bags” under the eyes, teeth turn yellow from smoke, and non-smokers compare kissing with a smoker and kissing an ashtray. A supporter of a healthy lifestyle, taking care of herself, at 40 years old can look noticeably better than a 30-year-old smoking lady.
• It is much more difficult for smokers to get pregnant, and even more so to give birth to a healthy child. You can realize all the destructive power of tobacco that affects a woman’s body by comparing two numbers: infertility suffer during reproductive age 4 percent non-smokers representatives of the fair sex and entire 42 percent smokers. But even if you manage to get pregnant, the problems are just beginning: the chance of giving birth to a dead child increases by 500%, more than 95% of miscarriages occur due to smoking, and a third of premature babies are born. Often the effect of smoking may not be immediately noticed, but the child is born weak, often sick, and develops more slowly than peers. This is especially pronounced if his parents continue to smoke, and the child becomes a passive smoker.
• Non-smokers live longer and their quality of life is higher. It is impossible to argue with this, smoking on average steals 9.5 years of life from a woman, while the last years are often accompanied by a heap of diseases and ailments. It is women who smoke who die in 90% of cases of lung cancer, among them the average age of patients who had a heart attack is 14 years lower than among non-smokers. All this is typical for men with approximately the same order of numbers, but in women, smoking also causes specific ailments: for example, tobacco turned out to be the culprit in almost half of cases of vulvar cancer, and it also increases the risk of developing cervical cancer.

For some, the argument in favor of a healthy lifestyle and quitting smoking will be excellent health and longevity, for some, the opportunity to give birth to a child, and a healthy and full-fledged one, and someone will be impressed by the result of a survey of men, according to which 97% of them would prefer relationship with a non-smoker. That’s what all those who quit this habit have in common — this is one of the few decisions in life that has dozens of different pluses and not a single minus. If you still smoke, quit yourself, encourage your loved ones to quit smoking and be healthy!