How Women Can Stop Smoking

Anyone who has ever tried to kick the smoking habit knows how difficult that is. Numbers show it might be more of a nail-biting challenge for women than men. Even with all the information on how to quit, 26 percent of American women of childbearing age smoke. About 11 percent of these women smoke during pregnancy.

Robert C. Klesges, Ph.D., and Margaret DeBon, co-authors of the book "How Women Can Finally Stop Smoking," say women face unique biological and societal challenges in quitting smoking. The authors say women start smoking, continue to smoke and relapse after quitting for reasons different than men. Women's bodies react to nicotine differently and their withdrawal symptoms are more severe. Also, when women stop smoking, they gain weight more easily than men.

They say research shows women seem to metabolize nicotine slower than men, and women may have higher nicotine levels than men. This could make women more nicotine dependent and make the process of quitting more difficult because of more intense withdrawal symptoms, according to Klesges and Debon.

The mood-elevating effects of nicotine are also especially attractive for women. Smoking becomes their best friend. "Like a friend, smoking is always there for you. It perks you up when you're blue; it's part of your daily life," they write.

What's more, women still cling to the notion that smoking keeps weight down, they say. As far back as the 1920s, smoking advertisements touted cigarettes as a diet tool. Actually, 75 percent to 80 percent of smokers do gain weight (about 5 pounds) when they quit smoking, while the remainder stay the same weight.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine examined the weight gains for women and men 10 years after quitting. The average weight gain for women who kick the habit was 11 pounds, compared with the 10-pound gain most men experience.

Klesges and DeBon offer these eight keys to women's success in quitting smoking:

1. Watch your menstrual cycle when deciding when to quit. Studies show smoking and the menstrual cycle interact. The writers say it is possible that women smokers mistake normal menstrual symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, hunger and decreased concentration, with those of smoking withdrawal. Also, the two may combine for a double whammy. Plan to quit at the end of your period, and you may experience fewer and less intense withdrawal symptoms.

2. Reduce your caffeine consumption. Researchers say women who smoke are more likely to drink caffeinated beverages than women who don't smoke. Cigarette smoking also reduces caffeine's effects. So, as a smoker, you need almost twice as much caffeine as a nonsmoker to get the same effect. When you quit smoking, your body normalizes its response to caffeine. If you don't reduce your intake, you might experience symptoms of a caffeine overdose, such as nervousness, irritability and tension, which can mimic or add to smoking withdrawal symptoms.

3. Team up with a friend. Studies show women who are trying to quit are helped a great deal by the social support of a buddy system. However, social support has little or no effect on cessation in men.

4. Recognize the differences between men who smoke and women who smoke. Understand that you, as a woman, may have a harder time quitting smoking than a man because of biological and behavioral reasons.

5. Cut down first. Whether men choose to quit cold turkey or cut down first may not matter. For women, however, cutting down first is important because their withdrawal symptoms may be more intense.

6. Recognize your "mental gremlins." Mental gremlins are predictive of relapse. The first gremlin tells you to go ahead and have a cigarette - because you will stop at just one. The second and third allow you to rationalize your habit by minimizing the health consequences of smoking. Women tend to be haunted more by gremlins than men. For example, men who relapse after going through a smoking cessation program typically blame the program. Women, however, feel guilty and consider themselves weak.

7. Learn the facts about quitting smoking and weight gain. Although most people do gain weight when they quit smoking, you can avoid that by making a few simple, permanent changes in lifestyle. You may be less likely to quit smoking if you try to exercise, change your diet and quit smoking all at the same time. Quit smoking first, wait until the worst of the withdrawal symptoms subside, then channel some of your efforts toward avoiding weight gain.

8. Confront relapses. Many smokers believe that one slip, one cigarette, and you are back to smoking. There is no question that a single slip is predictive of relapse. However, women tend to do better in a smoking cessation program that is more oriented toward problem-solving and will help them mobilize their psychological forces and overcome relapses through long-term effort. In contrast, men may be more successful using a "total abstinence" approach.

Related Articles What's in Your Cigarette? The Best Ways to Kick the Habit Teenage Smoking Causes Permanent Lung Damage The Facts About Women and Smoking Smoking - Not So Sexy The Dangers of Secondhand Smoking

External Source American Lung Association

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.

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