Logo

Women who smoke are likely to begin to enter menopause before the age of 45 years and also make them face the risk of osteoporosis and heart attacks, researchers reported on Norway.


"Among many as 2123 women aged 59 to 60 years, those who currently smoked, 59% more likely to experience premature menopause compared with women who did not smoke," said Dr. Thea F. Mikkelsen of the University of Oslo and colleagues.


For the heaviest smokers, the risk of early menopause nearly doubled. However, women who formerly smoked, but stopped at least 10 years before menopause, basically less likely to stop menstruating compared with smokers before the age of 45 years.


There is evidence that smoking later in life makes a woman more likely to experience premature menopause, while smokers who quit before middle age may not be affected, Mikkelsen and his team said in the journal Free, BMC Public Health.


They examine the relationship further and determine whether exposure to secondhand smoke may also affect the time of menopause. The researchers found that nearly 10% of women enter menopause before the age of 45 years.


As many as 25% were current smokers, 28.7% were former smokers and 35.2% reported current passive smokers. Current smokers were 59% more likely to enter early menopausemenopause almost two times more common among women who smoked the most. before the age of 45 years, while


But women who had quit smoking at least a decade before menopause is 87% more likely than their peers who currently smoked and had entered early menopause.


Compared with married women, widows also face an increased risk of early menopause, as well as women who said their health conditions worse. More educated women less likely to enter premature menopause, but they are also less likely to be smokers.


Involvement in social activities also reduce the risk of premature menopause. The researchers found no link between coffee or alcohol consumption or passive smokers with risk of premature menopause.

"The sooner a woman stops smoking," said Mikkelsen and his team, "More protection which he got in connection with the arrival of early menopause".