Klesges, who has researched smoking addiction for fifteen years and is a three-time contributor to the Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Smoking, and DeBon, his colleague at Memphis State University, say women start smoking, continue to smoke, and relapse after quitting for reasons different than men. Women's bodies react to nicotine differently, their withdrawal symptoms are more severe, and when women stop smoking they gain weight more easily than men do. They say research shows that women seem to metabolize nicotine slower than men, which may mean that cigarette for cigarette, 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, the authors say.
Like a friend, smoking is always there for you. 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. In 1995, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the weight gains for women and men 10 years after quitting. The average weight gain for women who kick the habit was 11 pounds, slightly higher than the 10-pound gain most men experience.