Online Clinic News - Time of the Month has Impact on Quitting Smoking Success Rate

Time of the Month has Impact on Quitting Smoking Success Rate

posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 | Categories: Smoking

New research just published in the United States has revealed that women attempting to quit smoking may be more or less successful depending on where they are in their menstrual cycle. The research by American scientists was published in the journal Addiction and said that women’s levels of success correlate directly to the levels of the female sex hormone in their body at their time of quitting.

Women attempting to give up cigarettes before ovulation, they claimed, were more likely to smoke again than women who gave up at other times. It is not a huge revelation that there are links between a woman’s mood and where she is in her menstrual cycle. This research shows, however, that women actually smoke more at some points in the cycle.

Considering how difficult it is to kick the habit, this research is extremely useful in maximising a woman’s chance of quitting successfully. The research was conducted on 200 women who were asked to quit smoking either in the period of their menstrual cycle leading up to ovulation (known as the follicular stage) or at the two week stage which completes the cycle (known as the luteal stage). Each stage has marked differences in the hormones produced in the body. Results showed that 86 percent of the women who had attempted to quit in the period leading up to ovulation had smoked at least one cigarette. This compared with just 66 percent of those women who had quit at the end of their cycle.

Although the scientists were not exactly sure how a woman’s hormone levels related to the varying rates of success they suggested that the levels could, perhaps, affect the severity of nicotine withdrawal symptoms felt by the women. They further suggested that hormones might even affect the rate at which nicotine is removed from the body.

The charity Quit has asked female smokers not to become too obsessed with these findings, and have reiterated that there is plenty of help available to them regardless of the time of the month.

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