Smoking cigarettes used to be an activity primarily associated with men. As the overall number of smokers continues to decline however, the proportion of women smoking cigarettes seems to be on the rise. A recent survey shows that large numbers of women continue to smoke despite the mountain of evidence demonstrating the negative health effects of smoking.

Why is it then that women seem to find it more difficult to give up smoking cigarettes than men do? Most of the women affected are fearful of putting on weight once they stop smoking. Although there is no direct correlation between smoking cessation and weight gain, many women (and men too!) will begin to snack once the nicotine cravings start. Unfortunately the preferred food type in this situation seems to be chocolate, as it gives an instant “sugar-hit” and takes the mind off the nicotine craving. Now everyone knows that increasing your intake of chocolate will not help in keeping one’s weight down. There is also some evidence that smoking speeds up the metabolism and can therefore contribute to the smoker burning “fuel” more speedily.

The uncomfortable truth in the real world is therefore that giving up smoking can lead to other behaviour that might well lead to weight gain. And women are generally more worried about weight gain than men are, which is one explanation why they find it more difficult to stop smoking cigarettes.

Women also tend to be more social with one another and will find it very difficult not to “have that fag with the girls” if the prevailing behavioural pattern in their social circle is one of smoking.

Beside all the well-documented and generally understood negative health effects of smoking, women also have another added responsibility to ponder: that of the protection of their unborn child. Cigarette smoke with all its miriad of chemicals and poisons will enter the mother’s blood stream and gets passed directly on to the unborn baby. Here it will change the heart rate and blood pressure, the oxygen supply and acid balance very significantly. A baby regularly exposed to these conditions will not receive enough oxygen and will not develop as it should. The evidence points to increases in miscarriages, stillbirths and under-developed babies for mothers who smoke during pregnancy.

Not only do women find it harder to stop smoking cigarettes, it is also more important for them to do so. Women should therefore be given any help they require to achieve their aims of living without cigarettes.