A new study has revealed that smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke is tied to infertility in women and early menopause.
Researchers found that women who smoked or were exposed to the most secondhand smoke were more likely to have problems getting pregnant and more likely to enter menopause before age 50.
They analyzed data on 88,732 U.S. women who enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study between 1993 and 1998, when they were between the ages of 50 and 79.
The study concluded that women who never smoked but were exposed to the most secondhand smoke were 18 percent more likely to have problems getting pregnant and to enter menopause at an early age.
Lead author, Andrew Hyland of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York said “There are a lot of events that could be attributed to these exposures.”
“As for a recommendation to clinicians, you should advise women of reproductive age to limit their exposure to minimize these outcomes.”