Active and passive smoking triggers premature menopause

Study: Smoking affects menopause and fertility
Smoking has many negative effects on the human body. This fact has long been known to researchers. A recent study has found that smoking and passive smoking can not only cause infertility, but also accelerate menopause.

Women who regularly consume high levels of tobacco should be aware that their menopause is one to two years earlier than non-smoking women. It does not matter whether the person is smoker or passive smoker, the effect can be triggered in both groups, report the researchers around Danielle Smith from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York about their current study results. The study was published in the journal "Tobacco Control".

Smoking and secondhand smoke in women leads to an earlier onset of menopause. (Image: photo 5000 / fotolia.com)

Tobacco harmful to reproduction and hormones
In their comprehensive study, scientists found that active and passive smoking severely damages women's health. Results would prove that all women should be protected from the effects of active and passive tobacco smoke, said researcher Danielle Smith of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Tobacco-containing toxins are known to have various deleterious effects on many aspects of reproduction. They also disrupt the production and activity of human hormones.

Large study of 79,000 menopausal women
The current study was conducted on 79,000 women. All subjects were already in the menopause at the time the study started. The age of the subjects was between 50 and 79 years. Questionnaires were used to determine how long the women had smoked, how much they smoked and when menopause occurred. The results were clear. Women who smoked more than 25 cigarettes a day reached their menopause about eighteen months earlier. If women had consumed a lot of passive smoke throughout their lives, such as through a spouse smoking in the apartment, the menopause occurred faster than non-smoking women, who also passively had little contact with tobacco smoke, the researchers report.

Earlier menopause associated with lower breast cancer risk
Smoking and strong passive smoking women would have a fourteen percent higher risk of infertility. In addition, there would be a 26 percent increased risk that the menopause occur before the age of 50 years, explain the scientists. Among the women with the highest tobacco consumption, menopause began 22 months earlier. Among the strongest passive smokers, menopause set in thirteen months earlier. Nevertheless, the earlier menopause has a positive side effect: according to the researchers, it is associated with a lower risk of certain diseases such as breast cancer. Also, the scientists point out that by the time the study was conducted, smoking was even more prevalent than it is today.