The new report, prepared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, summarized the statistical trends in smoking among women and girls and the demonstrated effects of smoking on women's health. Among teen-agers, the gender gap is even narrower. The percentage of high school senior girls who said they had smoked in the past month dropped to a low of 25.8 percent in 1992 but rebounded to 35.3 percent in 1997, before dropping to 29.7 percent in 2000. The same survey, from the University of Michigan, found that 32.8 percent of senior boys were smokers. Women who smoke face an increased risk of not only lung cancer but also coronary heart disease, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancers of the cervix, bladder, upper throat and tongue.
Smoking also produces several other harmful effects that particularly affect women.
Women who smoke have greater rates of infertility and other problems in conception, and if they smoke during pregnancy they face an increased risk of numerous complications for themselves and their babies. After menopause, women who smoke have less bone density and an increased risk of hip fractures compared with women who do not smoke. She emphasized that antismoking efforts directed toward young people should include not only long-term consequences but the almost immediate overall health benefits from quitting. She also noted that even some young people in their 20s and 30s have died of lung cancer and stroke. She said doctors, including pediatricians, should make a point of specifically urging patients to avoid smoking or quit smoking.