Smoking can cause early menopause by two or three years, health expert says

PETALING JAYA - Early age menopause is linked to smoking, says health expert.

Malaysian Menopause Society president Dr Ho Choon Moy said smoking can cause early menopause, where a woman’s menstrual cycles end between the age of 45 and 55, by two or three years.

“It is true that smoking can cause early menopause for women, and it can also causes a lot of health problems like breast cancer and heart diseases.

“I am not sure about vaping, but there are plenty of studies to proving that smoking does cause early menopause.

"Women should stop smoking,” she said after the launching the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) Management of Menopause in Malaysia here today.

On Dec 15 last year, BBC News reported that a study suggested women who were heavy or habitual smokers were more likely to experience the menopause earlier.

Comparing smokers with women who had never smoked, researchers found those who said they smoked heavily (more than 25 cigarettes a day) were likely to have faced the menopause 18 months earlier than non-smokers.

Researchers had said the results held true even after accounting for factors including ethnicity, oral contraceptive prescriptions, educational backgrounds and alcohol usage.

They had asserted that toxins in tobacco may be at fault by interfering with important reproductive hormones like oestrogen.

The Malaysian Menopause Society is a non-profit and non-government organisation established 25 years ago comprised of health professionals and the general public.

MMS aims to raise awareness of menopause, provide a social support network for women and their spouses in their golden years, promote education on menopause, create a forum for the discussion of issues on menopause and improve the standard of clinical care for menopausal women.