For ages, smoking has been a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted or inhaled. It has taken a great proportion on people’s life, in communities and societies. The habit of smoking is not only a social fact but it has its roots right from our cultures and traditions. In the African culture and mentalities, smoking was reserved for the elders. In some African cultures, women of a certain age and position in the community were allowed to smoke. Tobacco was used as a symbolic way or means to share and to welcome strangers.

Modernism has brought a lot of changes in culture and mentalities. Not only do men smoke, but women and even adolescents. Smoking is very rampant now our days in the adolescent’s milieu. Not only young boys smoke, but young girls to get into this tendency.  Generally, it starts at a young age, with peer pressure, being exposed to second hand smoking, having parents and best friends who smoke and prostitution. And for some, just simply to be cool.

Therefore, women who take cigarette usually started at a tender age. Some of them will quit smoking and others will continue or are addicted. In Africa, finding women smoking is still taboo. And a Secondary analysis of data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) was used to examine ethnic differences in smoking patterns among African American and White women. Results showed African American women initiate smoking later than White women at each age group. Scientists have developed so many techniques and strategies to stop cigarette consumption. But it has been scientifically proven that women have natural means to get rid of smoking.

 

Menstrual cycle can influence efforts to stop smoking

According to a new Australian study, Women who want to quit smoking need every advantage they can get. According to information from the study, only about one in 10 smokers who quit are still smoke-free after a year, and women have a tougher time quitting than men, even if they smoke the same amount as men. In a new study, Canadian researchers tracked outcomes for 34 men and women who smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day. They found that the women's craving for nicotine was strongest during their periods.

Smoking cigarettes may worsen menstrual cramps

Women who smoke cigarettes may be at higher risk for menstrual pain, according to a new Australian study. Compared to non-smokers, smokers in the study were more likely to suffer from severe menstrual pain and to experience a worsening of pain as the number of cigarettes they smoked per day increased.

 

How smoking cigarettes might increase menstrual pain is not entirely clear, but it may happen via a decrease in the amount of oxygen available to the uterus, Dr. Jennifer Leighdon Wu, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told Reuters Health that it is scientifically known that smoking causes vasoconstriction, or constriction of the blood vessels. And when this happens with the uterus, it can cause pain. The researchers also found that the earlier women started to smoke, the higher their risk of chronically painful periods. Specifically, the risk was 59 percent higher for women who started to smoke before age 13, and 50 percent higher for those who took up cigarettes at age 14 or 15. While the study involved young Australian women, the results "can be generalized to young women from other countries with similar characteristics," Wu said.

It is true that there are therapies for smokers to help them quit smoking. However, each smoker is unique in terms of tobacco use, personality, personal history, social situation culture and environment. Women in Africa and in under developed countries face stress, anxiety, depression and have lots of day to day problems to deals with. All these are probably the most important factors to take into consideration as they involve  smoking