Active and secondhand smoking both linked to early menopause

ConclusionWe hardly need more evidence to show smoking is bad for our health, but the suggestion that it may slightly increase the risk of an early menopause and chances of having problems getting pregnant could be important to some women. More surprising is that high levels of secondhand smoke exposure may also have a similar effect.This is a big study with a lot of detailed information about smoking and fertility. But it has some important limitations. It uses quite old data taken from a study of women who were in middle age in the 1990s. Smoking habits have changed a lot in the last 20 years, not only for active smoking but for passive smoking, too. For example, these women would have been children in the 40s and 50s, when people smoking in the home was far more commonplace than it is now. This means a similar study now might have different results. The results also rely on women aged 50 to 79 accurately remembering events that happened in their childhood and early adulthood. Also, because the study was cross-sectional, we don't know how the women's behaviour changed over time. For example, a woman might have started smoking after she'd finished trying for children, which means it could not have affected her chances of infertility. Observational studies can't prove one factor causes another, so we don't know that smoking or smoke exposure were the direct cause of earlier menopause or fertility problems. Although the researchers did attempt to take account of various socioe...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Older people Pregnancy/child Source Type: news