No longer is smoking glamorized as it once was years ago in the movies – where beautiful actresses like Betty Davis lit up on the big screen. Smoking’s general appeal has mostly changed because now everyone is aware of how detrimental smoking is to your health.
OB/GYN doctors have been saying it for decades: smoking is bad for everyone – women included!
In fact, the American Cancer Society offers many staggering statistics for women smokers, such as:
- One in three cancer deaths are related to tobacco usage
- A woman is 26 times more likely to develop lung cancer as a smoker than a non-smoker
- Tens of thousands of women die every year from lung cancer (which has now risen above breast cancer as the leading cause of death among women)
- Seventy percent of lung cancer deaths in women are caused by smoking
- Your risk for heart disease as a woman increases significantly as a smoker.
- Smoking damages your airways and small sacs in your lungs, which can cause coughing, wheezing and other lung issues
- Ninety percent of deaths from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) issues such as chronic bronchitis or emphysema are due to smoking
- Many women smokers deal with infertility, which doctors believe can be caused from the smoking habit
- Pregnant women are more likely to have an ectopic pregnancy if they are a smoker
- Smoking women experience more miscarriages, stillbirths and low weight babies than non-smokers
Hopefully these issues listed above are enough to help you want to quit the habit if you smoke. Smoking is not an issue to be pushed aside until a problem arises, but rather it needs to be dealt with here and now.
The compassionate physicians and gynecologists at All About Women are dedicated to the overall health of all women, but particularly those in the Gainesville and Lake City areas. If you need support from a doctor you can trust, contact us to schedule your well women’s exam today.
For more information regarding the effects smoking has on your health, read this knowledge center article.
