Smoking is no respecter of gender. Recent research has confirmed that the devastating effects of smoking (lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, stroke) occur at identical rates in women and men.

(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1211127)

Women actually have worse outcomes than men when it comes to lung cancer and it kills more women than breast cancer. Smoking also increases the risk of all other solid organ cancers including cancer of the breast and cervix.
(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1213751).

The good news is that stopping smoking at any age or stage is beneficial both in terms of short term health and also life expectancy gaining an extra 10 years if you stop in your 20-30s, 9 years if you stop from mid 30s-40s, and 6 years if you stop from your mid 40s-50s .

(http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1211128).

As a summary then, these effects of smoking may influence your decision to quit

• Smoking increases wrinkles
• Smoking shortens your life expectancy by 10 years
• More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer
• Smoking increases your chances of breast, cervical and almost all other cancers
• Smoking increases your chances of lung disease, heart disease and stroke which kill more women than any other causes
• The sooner you quit the greater the benefit
• If you smoke like a man – you will die like a man

Thanks to Athol Kent from JASS for pulling together the articles mentioned above.

The above information doesn’t take the place of a medical consultation so please seek further advice if you have further concerns.