Female smokers can time quitting addiction with their menstrual cycle: New study

Female smokers can now bid goodbye to their addiction by timing it well with optimal days within their menstrual cycle. According to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, women can get rid of their smoking habit by timing the quit date with optimal days within their menstrual cycle.

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and women experience more severe health consequences from cigarette smoking than men, including a 25% increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Research also shows that women have greater difficulty with smoking cessation than men.

"Understanding how menstrual cycle phase affects neural processes, cognition and behaviour is a critical step in developing more effective treatments and in selecting the best, most individualised treatment options to help each cigarette smoker quit," said the study's lead author, Reagan Wetherill, a research assistant professor of Psychology.

Wetherill and senior author Teresa Franklin, a research associate professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry, have been studying the brains of premenopausal women who smoke cigarettes for several years in Penn's Center for the Studies of Addiction. Their work is based on a significant animal literature showing that the natural sex hormones -- oestrogen and progesterone -- which fluctuate over the course of the menstrual cycle modulate addictive behaviour.

The animal data show that during the pre-ovulatory, or follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, when the progesterone-to-estrogen ratio is low, women are more likely to be spurred toward addictive behaviours. Alternatively, during the early pre-menstrual or luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, when the progesterone-to-estrogen ratio is high, addictive behaviours are thwarted, suggesting that progesterone might protect women from relapsing to smoking.

The researchers theorised that the natural fluctuations in ovarian hormones that occur over the course of the monthly menstrual cycle affect how women make decisions regarding reward - smoking a cigarette -- and so-called "smoking cues," which are the people, places and things that they associate with smoking, such as the smell of a lit cigarette or going on their coffee break.

These "appetitive reminders" to smoke are perceived as pleasant and wanted, and similar to cigarettes, are also rewarding. "The results from this study become extremely important as we look for more ways to help the over 40 million individuals in the U.S. alone addicted to cigarettes. When we learn that something as simple as timing a quit date may impact a woman's cessation success, it helps us to provide more individualised treatment strategies for individuals who are struggling with addiction", said Franklin.

This study was published in Biology of Sex Differences.