Smoking Worse For Women Or Men?

When we see a man smoking on the streets, we are irritated that he is ruining his health and spreading pollution. But when we see a woman smoking in public, what we feel is more akin to indignation. A silent voice in our head says, 'she is a woman and she smokes'. In that way, smoking is more of a social taboo for women than men.

Before you get annoyed, let us clarify that this article is going to give you facts to justify smoking by women or men. What we are actually trying to analyze is whether smoking is more harmful for women or men. Should we look at smoking as a social taboo for women or treat it just as a bad habit?

Lung Damage: Smoking damages your lungs irrevocably. If you are a heavy drinker and damage your liver, then you can still have a chance to live because the liver can regenerate itself. However, the lungs once damaged, is gone forever. Now obviously, lung damage does not depend on your gender.

Cancer: 'Tobacco causes cancer' is printed in bold on all cigarette packets. Unfortunately, it does not stop either men or women from smoking. Nicotine present in tobacco is a carcinogen that can cause abnormal cancerous growth throughout the body. The worst hit is the mouth, the throat and the lungs.
However, it has been seen that women smokers are more prone to breast cancer and cancers of the reproductive organs like ovaries, uterus cervix etc.

Smoking & Pregnancy: The prime reason for the bias against smoking among women is because they are the childbearing gender. Now, it has been proven that smoking causes miscarriage. In fact, smoking can permanently damage a woman's ability to conceive a child. Women who smoke are at higher risk of having babies with birth defects and respiratory disorders.

Smoking & Sperm Count: Smoking among men is the prime reason for reduced sperm count. The sperms present in the semen either die or there is a decrease in their agility (motility) as a result of smoking. Eventually it causes infertility in men. Smoking can also make a man impotent. So, as far as pregnancy and babies are concerned, smoking equally damages both genders.

Smoking & Hormonal Imbalance: Smoking causes hormonal imbalances in both men and women. While men lose hair and have bad skin, women tend to have symptoms like irregular periods, sleeplessness etc. The bottom-line is that smoking makes neither men nor women look any better.
So, we can see that smoking for both women and men is a health issue of equal gravity. Let us not treat it like a social taboo but a bad habit that needs to be corrected. Men and women, its time to wake up and call it quits.