Expert cautions women on smoking

Dr Sharon Osaide, a Fertility Physician, said on Friday that women who started smoking early in life had 70 per cent chances of going into early menopause, as well as being infertile.

Osaide, who is also a gynecologist with Rose Du Rouge International Initiative and a Volunteer Consultant, said this in a Lecture at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camp in Lagos.

She said that experience had shown that before now, most women, even at 52 do menstruate, but recently, it has become common that at 42, some women have stopped menstruating.

“Smoking is another cause of infertility, as women that smokes have 70 per cent more chances of going into early menopause than women that do not smoke, especially women that started smoking at early puberty.

“The longer a woman smokes at early puberty, the earlier she goes into menopause, which is why our mothers were still menstruating even at 52 years.

“It is unfortunate some women at 42 years now go into menopause, though it is accepted because we are trying to adjust to the negativities of our society, instead of trying to make our society positive,’’ she said.

The gynecologist, who decried the high rate of women who experienced early menopause, advised women and corps members to refrain from smoking, so as to stem the high rate of infertility.

Osaide, who also highlighted the causes of infertility, said that untreated sexually transmitted infections like Chlamydia and gonorrhea have been said to affect one in five adults below the age of 22 in Nigeria.

“That is staggering statistics, which means that as you are sitting down, the next four people sitting with you at one time or the other had either gonorrhea or chlamydia.

“The men are lucky when they have gonorrhea, they could easily detect the problem, they have painful urination and they quickly go to a clinic and get treated.

“Unfortunately for the women, a lot of times she is ace symptomatic, they do not even know that they are infected and it is there for years and it would develop into pelvic inflammatory disease.

“It would lead to blocked fallopian tubes and may lead to infertility; the awareness programme is to say another reason to stay safe,’’ she said.

The fertility expert said that obesity in male and female could lead to infertility, saying that an obese woman would have an irregular ovulation cycle.

The expert also urged women to live healthy lifestyles by eating healthy food and engaging themselves in regular exercises.