How Smoking Affects Perimenopause

You already know that smoking is bad for your health. But if you are a woman and going through "the change", did you ever wonder how smoking affects perimenopause?

In addition to missing periods, women who experience perimenopause may have hot flashes, mood swings, bone loss, change in cholesterol levels, difficulty sleeping and fatigue. Smoking can affect and even increase the effects of symptoms of perimenopause.

Smoking can lead to early menopause. Both smoking and early menopause carry the increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Even if you don't have an actual heart attack, both smoking and menopause increase your risk of developing heart disease.

Smoking can increase the frequency and degree of hot flashes. Smoking also increases cortisol stress hormone levels in the body which can intensify mood swings. Although quitting smoking brings mood swings as well, these effects generally last a week or two. If you continue to smoke through perimenopause, the increased mood swings will last much longer.

Bone loss happens as we age. In women, the loss of estrogen during menopause increases bone loss, as does smoking. Smoking decreases estrogen levels and increases cortisol levels, both which add to bone loss.

Cholesterol levels in the body change with perimenopause. Perimenopause can cause an increase in bad cholesterol, while smoking decreases levels of good cholesterol. This imbalance in the different types of cholesterol may become severe enough to have to be treated in ways other than changes in diet alone.

Difficulty sleeping and fatigue are two other symptoms of both perimenopause and smoking. Fluctuating hormone levels can contribute to these issues when it comes to perimenopause. You might have these symptoms whether you smoke or not, but smoking increases you risk of experiencing these symptoms.

Perimenopause is hard enough for some people, though some go through without much difficulty. However, if you smoke, your symptoms may be worse because of the ways that smoking affects perimenopause.

SOURCES:

Mayo Clinic; Perimenopause, Symptoms

GYNOB.com; Smoking and Early Menopause