We don't say anything new if we point out that tobacco is harmful to anyone. But there are certain stages in the life of women, closely related to our theme, which makes us stop to list the harm of tobacco for women, such as during pregnancy and lactation.
Being a habitual smoker has serious consequences on women: fertility, menstruation or the successful termination of pregnancy is in danger. Let's see how harmful tobacco can be for women at different stages of their lives.
- Tobacco complicates menstrual cycles, since it can alter the rules, varying their frequency, causing pain or causing them to disappear completely in extreme cases.
- If the woman uses hormonal contraceptives, its combination with tobacco can be seriously harmful to her, due to the increased likelihood of thromboembolism that this entails (between 20 and 40 times more than non-smokers). Such is the incompatibility of this dangerous mixture that hormonal contraceptives are contraindicated in women smokers over 35 years.
- In the event that the woman is trying to get pregnant, it should be known that women who smoke have more difficulty getting it. ANDl tobacco negatively influences female fertility, since it accelerates the aging of the ovaries, thus losing reproductive capacity and accelerating menopause, in addition to increasing the risk of ectopic pregnancies. For men, tobacco is also not a good companion if they want good sperm quality.
- During pregnancy, the repercussions of tobacco on the health of the child and the good development of pregnancy are several. In addition to advancing the time of delivery (11% of premature births are due to the mother's continued smoking during pregnancy), not radically abandoning this habit can lead to the baby being born underweight, suffering from sudden death syndrome , present malformations or have learning problems and hyperactivity in its future development. The risk of abortion, cleft lip, behavioral problems, strabismus ... are just other harmful effects of snuff during pregnancy.
- During breastfeeding: Just like in pregnancy, smoking while breastfeeding is causing the victims to double. Through breast milk, nicotine passes to the child and causes sleep problems and irritability, vomiting, sometimes rejection of breast milk and even intestinal cramps. However, it has caught my attention to read on several occasions that although the mother smokes, breastfeeding still has more benefits than if the baby does not receive breast milk, provided that it is not smoked in front of the child or introduced into environments with smoke .
- Finally, women's reproductive health is also harmed in another way, since menopause can be advanced up to two years due to the alterations that tobacco consumption causes on estrogen production. This increases the risk of the appearance of ischemic heart disease or osteoporosis.
As we see, the health of women and their children are put at risk with these damages of tobacco, a habit that should be banished if possible if we try to get pregnant, we are in a state or we already have children.
