Can Quitting Smoking Affect Your Period?

Smoking messes with almost every part of your body, including your menstrual cycle. It can lead to heavier bleeding, more pain, or even stop your periods.

But don’t worry—your cycle can return to normal if you find the resolve to quit smoking for good. 

It’s interesting to note that quitting during your cycle might help you see the benefits sooner, making it easier to stay smoke-free and ensure your menstrual cycle and overall health return to normal.

Continue reading as we explore how smoking and quitting affect your period, and how different phases of your cycle can impact your ability to quit smoking.

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Does Smoking Make Your Period Heavier or More Painful?

That time of the month can be rough for any woman, but if you’re a heavy smoker, your period might be even worse. Imagine the usual discomfort and pain cranked up to a whole new level.

A study by Reuters backs this up, showing that women who smoke or have a history of smoking tend to have heavier and more painful periods than those who don’t. The more cigarettes you smoke, the worse the pain gets. 

That’s because smoking restricts blood vessels and reduces oxygen flow to the uterus, making everything more painful.

If you started smoking young, the effects could be even worse. Women who picked up smoking before age 15 are 50% more likely to deal with chronic period pain and heavy bleeding.

A 2020 analysis of 13 studies with over 25,000 participants also confirmed that smoking can make period pain and symptoms worse. 

Smokers are 1.5 times more likely to experience severe PMS, including sleep issues, cramps, depression, and irritability. 

And if you suffer from PMDD, smoking can triple the intensity of your symptoms.

Can Smoking Cause Irregular Periods?

Smoking can make your menstrual cycle shorter and more irregular.

If you’re a heavy smoker—like over 20 cigarettes a day—you’re four times more likely to have cycles that are less than 25 days long compared to someone who doesn’t smoke.

Can Smoking Stop Your Period?

There’s no direct scientific proof that smoking stops your period, but it can mess with your cycle by causing weight loss.

So, how exactly does smoking cause you to shed a few pounds?

First, nicotine ramps up your metabolism by increasing your heart rate, which causes your body to burn calories more quickly. 

Second, it interferes with ghrelin, the hormone responsible for triggering hunger, so you end up eating less. 

And lastly, nicotine makes you feel full faster by binding to a receptor in your body that controls satiety.

But remember, this isn’t healthy weight loss. 

Smoking-induced weight loss means your body isn’t functioning properly. You need at least 22% body fat for regular periods. 

Being underweight can disrupt hormone levels, leading to missed periods. Hormonal changes regulate ovulation and menstrual bleeding, so anything that disrupts these hormones can prevent ovulation. 

Without ovulation, a proper period doesn’t occur. So, if smoking causes you to lose a lot of weight or drops your body fat below a healthy level, it can result in your periods stopping.

Can Quitting Smoking Affect Your Period?

Nicotine might have done some permanent damage, and some effects on your organs might be irreversible. 

But the good news is that quitting smoking can still give your body a chance to heal. 

A lot of your organs will start to repair themselves, and your body will get back to functioning better, including your menstrual cycle.

Can Quitting Smoking Delay Your Period?

Smoking can delay your period, but can quitting smoking make your period late?

There is no evidence to support that quitting smoking can cause a delayed period.

The good news is that if you have lost significant amounts of weight while smoking when you quit, your metabolism returns to normal and your hunger hormones and receptors are no longer interfered with by nicotine.

These changes often lead to weight gain, which can help to bring your period back. The average amount of weight gained after quitting is 5kg over a 5-year period, though most of the weight gain occurs in the first few months after quitting, then stabilises.

It’s important to remember that this weight gain is actually a good thing; it’s a sign that your body is functioning properly again.

After all, regular periods between puberty and menopause signal that your body is working normally. The return of your period is in itself evidence that your body is returning to health and recovering from the effects of smoking.

If you do experience late periods after quitting smoking, discuss this with your GP. They will be able to assess whether this may be a temporary side effect of quitting, or whether something else is going on.

Heavy Period After Quitting Smoking

Quitting smoking shouldn’t cause a heavy period.

In fact, experts agree that quitting smoking can alleviate period pain. When you quit smoking, your hormones are no longer impacted by nicotine.

Additionally, your blood vessels are no longer restricted, and the blood and oxygen flow to the uterus improves.

If you are experiencing heavier bleeds after quitting, check in with your GP.

When Should I Quit Smoking in My Cycle?

Interestingly, the phase of your menstrual cycle in which you quit smoking can impact your success in curbing the habit.

Research has proven that your menstrual cycle can affect your nicotine cravings, and you can take advantage of this to increase your chances of quitting successfully.

Studies suggest that women who quit in the first half of their menstrual cycle (the time between the start of their period and ovulation) are more likely to engage in addictive behaviours, such as smoking.

It is believed that the hormone estradiol (a type of estrogen), which promotes addictive behaviours, is higher in the first half of the cycle.

Conversely, in the second half of the menstrual cycle, the progesterone hormone is higher, which is thought to protect against relapse.

Another study followed 34 smokers; 19 women and 15 men. Researchers used functional MRI (fMRI) brain scans to deduce whether any changes in the brain that are associated with nicotine withdrawal fluctuated in response to hormone level changes.

The scan observed certain parts of the brain that help to control addictive behaviour. The results found that the brain structures responsible for nicotine cravings were in fact more active in menstruating women.

Researchers found that during the first half of the menstrual cycle — known as the follicular phase — there was less activity in the rewards centre and brain regions that promote good decision making.

The same brain regions were found to be more active during the second half of the menstrual cycle, during ovulation. At this point, the brain was more likely to support control over smoking-related urges and behaviour. ovulation can actually decrease the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.

Physical nicotine withdrawal symptoms typically last for a week, so it is recommended that women quit two weeks before their next expected period to take advantage of these hormonal changes.

Quitting Smoking and Periods: Getting Things Back on Track

Smoking can negatively affect your menstrual cycle in several ways. It may intensify symptoms of PMS and PMDD, as well as cause irregular periods.

Conversely, smoking may cause you to lose significant amounts of weight which can eliminate your periods altogether.

Quitting smoking, on the other hand, can positively affect your period. When you quit, your body begins to repair itself, and your bodily systems begin to function normally again.

Post-quitting weight gain may help to bring back your period, and the improved flow of blood and oxygen to the uterus may reduce pain.

Struggling to quit while pregnant or in the lead-up to pregnancy?

Let’s break down the effects of smoking while pregnant, the misconceptions around the justification of the action, and most importantly, how to quit smoking when pregnant. Of course, the ideal scenario is always to quit smoking before becoming pregnant.

How Smoking Affects Pregnancy

There are many risks to smoking, and these risks are transferred to the baby if the habit persists.

Smoking affects pregnancy in the following ways;

• Increased risk of abnormal bleeding during labour

Placental Abruption: When the placenta prematurely detaches from the uterus either partly or entirely. This can limit oxygen supply to the child and increase the chances of severe bleeding during pregnancy. If Placental Abruption is untreated, critical circumstances can lead to fatality for either the child or both the mother and child.

Placenta Previa: When the placenta attaches itself to the cervix, which can cause critical bleeding during labour.

Placenta Accreta: When the placenta (or a portion of it) becomes embedded in and joined to the uterine wall, it is known as placenta accreta. Placenta accreta can lead to excessive blood loss during delivery and third-trimester bleeding.

• Increased risk of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI)

SUDI is the sudden and unexplained death of an infant under one year old. While guidance from the Department of Health states that instances of SUDI are rare and the risk of a baby dying from it is very low, they also note that, if a mother smokes during pregnancy, the baby is much more likely to die from SUDI than if you don’t.

• Premature labour

The result of a baby not reaching full term (39-40 weeks). Babies born before 34 weeks can experience challenges and, in some cases, death due to undeveloped bodily functions.

• Low birth weight

Whether the baby reaches full term or not, smoking during pregnancy can result in a low birth weight which can have serious health issues.

• Congenital disorders such as cleft lip and cleft pallet

During the 4th to the 9th week of pregnancy, the lip and pallet start to form. A cleft lip and pallet occurs when the tissue has not fully connected, leaving a gap. These congenital disorders can be corrected, but the baby may struggle to feed and could experience feeding difficulties if left unresolved.

• Damaged lungs and stunted brain activity

Smoking while pregnant stunts a baby’s growth, including the development of the lungs and brain; this could have lasting repercussions that continue throughout the child’s lifetime.

Misconceptions Around Smoking While Pregnant

No. 1 – ‘Quitting smoking during pregnancy will cause even more stress for the baby’.

• The damages of smoking far outweigh the repercussions of stress. The highest state of stress is in between cigarettes when cravings are at their highest. It’s important to remember that these cravings dissipate, and the stress starts to decrease the longer you stick with quitting.

No. 2 – ‘The baby is protected in your belly, and it’s not breathing air anyway’.

• Mother and child share the same bloodstream. A baby takes on around 4 thousand chemicals every time a mother has a cigarette while pregnant. It is the equivalent of a child trapped in a room full of second-hand smoke for 15 minutes.

No. 3 – ‘ Smoking makes for a smaller baby, and smaller babies are easier to birth’.

• While this statement may make some intuitive sense, the size of the baby isn’t the only factor that determines the ease (or difficulty) of the birth. A number of complications may coincide with a smaller baby, such as development issues, heart and lung conditions, and higher vulnerability to infection. These effects may just outweigh the potential benefits of birthing a smaller baby.

No. 4 – ‘Quitting smoking will make me gain weight’

• This may be true as seeking comfort from food can be an instinctive response to managing nicotine cravings. But the truth is, there are many ways to control weight or keep weight gain at a minimum, and almost all methods are healthier than smoking. Light exercise and adopting a healthy diet not only help control weight but are beneficial for the unborn baby.

No.5 – ‘My mother smoked as a child and turned out alright’.

• The effects of maternal smoking may impact the child in many different ways, and it’s true that some children show no physical or mental symptoms. But leaving a child’s life to the luck of circumstance may not work in everyone’s favour. According to the National Library of Medicine, a study conducted in 1997 clearly outlined that the rate of infant mortality was 40 % higher in women that smoked during pregnancy.

No. 6 – ‘I’ve been smoking for half of my pregnancy what’s the point of giving up now?’

• It’s never too late to give up smoking. Even if you’re in your third trimester or just days out from your proposed due date, every second counts.

No. 7 – ‘I’ll just cut down instead of giving up.’

• While cutting back will decrease the exposure to your baby and is a good first step if you’re struggling to quit completely, as mentioned above, just one cigarette is exposing your baby to around 4 thousand chemicals via the bloodstream. And to give your little one the best chance, quitting altogether is the best option.

If one of the scenarios above is similar to your current situation, read further to find out how you can quit smoking when pregnant.

It has been proven that quitting during the second half of your cycle when you are ovulating can actually help to prevent relapse, as the hormone that promotes addictive behaviours is lower than during the first half of your cycle.

If you’re planning to quit, time your quit date two weeks before your next expected period to make the most of these hormonal changes.

If you are struggling to quit or have experienced changes in your menstrual cycle while smoking or quitting, get in touch with a GP to discuss your symptoms. They will be able to determine why these changes are occurring and suggest treatment options.

Link Reference

• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-menstrual-pain-cigarettes/smoking-cigarettes-may-worsen-menstrual-cramps-idUSKBN0JN2KK20141209
• https://www.myhormonology.com/smoking-and-vaping-worse-pms-and-pmdd/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9916957/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3997941/
• https://www.verywellhealth.com/changes-in-your-weight-and-missing-your-period-4105209#citation-15
• https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/anovulatory-cycle#what-is-it
• https://www.womenshealth.gov/menstrual-cycle/your-menstrual-cycle-and-your-health
• https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/managing-period-pain