http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/sexfertility.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/call-to-ban-smokers-from-funded-ivf-20091026-hgg6.html http://tobacco.org/news/291693.html Couples who smoke, or are overweight, should be denied taxpayer-funded access to fertility treatments until they take steps to improve their health, a visiting expert says. Professor Nicholas Macklon says Australia should follow the example of New Zealand and other countries, which do not publicly fund assisted reproduction services for couples who are smokers or obese. "I suggest that Australia should consider this model," said Prof Macklon, who is head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton University in England. "... and patients should not expect to undertake infertility treatment unless they are prepared to give themselves the best chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby. . . . Prof Macklon spoke at the Fertility Society of Australia's annual meeting, a three-day event which got under way in Perth on Monday. Brisbane Times Australia Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oct/21/strip-resort-sued-over-second-hand-smoke/ http://tobacco.org/news/291441.html A second Las Vegas Strip casino is being sued over allegations that the health of employees is being affected by second-hand smoke. A suit seeking class action status to represent all affected workers was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by Wynn Las Vegas employee Kanie Kastroll against the casino resort and its parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd. The suit was filed by law firms including KamberEdelson LLC of Chicago, which in July filed a similar suit against Harrah's Entertainment's Caesars Palace hotel-casino. Attorneys for Harrah's and Caesars have not yet filed their answer to that complaint. That suit has also not completed the significant legal hurdle of being certified as a class action. . . . The suit alleges exposure to smoke is causing eye irritation, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing, tightness in the chest, asthma, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins. Las Vegas Sun Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://search.eurekalert.org/e3/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/l-ace092409.php&charset=iso-8859-1&qt=tobacco%2C+smoking%2C+cigarettes&col=ev3rel&n=2&la=en http://tobacco.org/news/290796.html Autoimmune condition, especially combined with smoking and oral contraceptive use, massively increases risk of stroke and heart attack in young women The autoimmune condition antiphospholipid syndrome mainly affects young women. An Article published Online First and in the November edition of the Lancet Neurology shows that women with a particular subtype of antibody called lupus anticoagulant (LA) have a more than 40-fold increased risk of stroke and 5-fold increased risk of heart attack compared with the general population (of young women). Smoking and oral contraceptive use increase the risk of these events even more. The Article is written by Dr Rolf Urbanus and Dr Philip de Groot, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, together with colleagues from the Leiden University Medical Centre. EurekAlert r.t.urbanus@umcutrecht.nl Netherlands Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422%2809%2970239-X/abstract http://tobacco.org/news/290589.html Interpretation Our results suggest that lupus anticoagulant is a major risk factor for arterial thrombotic events in young women, and the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors increases the risk even further. The Lancet ph.g.degroot@umcutrecht.nl (Rolf T Urbanus PhD a, Bob Siegerink MSc b, Mark Roest PhD a, Frits R Rosendaal MD b c, Philip G de Groot PhD a , Ale Alg) Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165535.php http://tobacco.org/news/290588.html The autoimmune condition antiphospholipid syndrome mainly affects young women. An Article published Online First and in the November edition of The Lancet Neurology shows that women with a particular subtype of antibody called lupus anticoagulant (LA) have a more than 40-fold increased risk of stroke and 5-fold increased risk of heart attack compared with the general population (of young women). Smoking and oral contraceptive use increase the risk of these events even more. The Article is written by Dr Rolf Urbanus and Dr Philip de Groot, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, together with colleagues from the Leiden University Medical Centre. Antiphospholipid syndrome occurs when autoantibodies* bind to cell membranes, interfering with the regular clotting mechanism of the blood. Diagnosis occurs when young women (under 50 years) suffer a thrombotic event such as a stroke or heart attack, and antiphospholipid antibodies are tested. Although it is known that this condition causes thrombosis, bleeding, and repeat miscarriage in women, the extent of the increased risk for stroke and heart attack was unknown before this study. . . . In an accompanying Reflection and Reaction, Dr Kathryn Kirchoff-Torres and Dr Steven R Levine, Stroke Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA, say that the most important aspect of the study is its conclusion that young women with LA need to be warned about the dangers of smoking and use of oral contraceptives. Medical News TODAY Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Lung cancer many risks facing women lose ovaries hysterectomies/1851884/story.html http://tobacco.org/news/289206.html Bad news is the last thing Monica Baker needs. But the Ottawa ovarian cancer survivor got it recently when a new study revealed a doubled risk of lung cancer in women who have had hysterectomies in which their ovaries are removed. The study by researchers at Université de Montreal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine showed women who go through early menopause as a result of oophorectomy -- the removal of both ovaries -- are at twice the risk of developing lung cancer as those who do not. It was the second study this year to link oophorectomy to lung cancer. Although more work needs to be done, scientists speculate the cause may be found in the loss of cancer-protective effect of the hormones ovaries produce. Vancouver Sun Canada Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090721104244.htm http://tobacco.org/news/288786.html Women who have premature menopause because of medical interventions are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Cancer. The startling link was made by epidemiologists from the Université de Montréal, the Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and the INRS—Institut Armand-Frappier. "We found that women who experienced non-natural menopause are at almost twice the risk of developing lung cancer compared to women who experienced natural menopause," says Anita Koushik, a researcher at the Université de Montréal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and a scientist at the Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. "This increased risk of lung cancer was particularly observed among women who had non-natural menopause by having had both their ovaries surgically removed." The scientists studied 422 women with lung cancer and 577 control subjects at 18 hospitals across Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They assessed socio-demographic characteristics, residential history, occupational exposures, medical and smoking history, and (among women) menstruation and pregnancy histories. ScienceDaily Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2009/08/14/watchdog-slams-viz-over-saucy-smoking-advert-61634-24439022/ http://tobacco.org/news/288588.html STANDARDS watchdogs have banned a saucy advert which appeared in adult magazine Viz over claims it glamorises smoking. A page in the Newcastle-born adult comic showed a scantily-clad woman with cigarette rolling papers appearing to float out of her handbag. The model was pictured in silver high-heels, skimpy shorts, and sitting with her legs crossed next to the slogan: "OCB X-PERT: Europe's Premium Cigarette Paper." But the risque image prompted a complaint against the cigarette papers company to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which agreed it was irresponsible and associated glamour with smoking tobacco. OCB Papers Ltd, which produces the cigarette papers, has been told the advert must not appear in the magazine - or anywhere else - again. TheJournal UK Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/weird/Couple-Starts-Fire-While-Igniting-the-Old-Flame-52442372.html http://tobacco.org/news/288124.html A retired firefighter and his wife nearly burned their Miami home to the ground in a fast-moving fire they acidentally started while naked in bed, fire officials said. . . . Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll said the couple "were spending some quality time with each other" when a lit cigarette was dropped under their bed shortly before 9 a.m. in their apartment complex in the 1400 block of Northwest 19th Street. "She didn't realize that happened until they started seeing flames and smoke coming up from under their bed," Carroll said. "They completely came out with nothing on, people had to give them something to cover up with." Lowell's wife, Jolie, is wheelchair-bound and was pretty upset about the couple not getting a chance to spark their own fire. "It was my cigarette. We were getting ready to do the nasty so that's why," she said. "You kind of forget about the cigarette." NBC Chicago Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/extract/99/8/1350 http://tobacco.org/news/288082.html Saarni et al.1 recently published an interesting study using Finnish twins to examine the association between adolescent smoking and adult abdominal obesity and overweight. They found that smoking was a risk for abdominal obesity in females.1 Unfortunately, they were unable to provide any explanation for the phenomenon, and did not realize that this probably affects the attractiveness of the female body.2 Here we propose why smoking may increase abdominal obesity in women and reduce attractiveness. American Journal of Public Health mapolk@utu.fi ( Mari Pölkki, MSc and Markus J. Rantala, PhD ) Finland Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://search.eurekalert.org/e3/cs.html?url=http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/uom-orm072109.php&charset=iso-8859-1&qt=tobacco%2C+smoking%2C+cigarettes&col=ev3rel&n=17&la=en http://tobacco.org/news/287852.html Women who have premature menopause because of medical interventions are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Cancer. The startling link was made by epidemiologists from the Université de Montréal, the Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and the INRS—Institut Armand-Frappier. "We found that women who experienced non-natural menopause are at almost twice the risk of developing lung cancer compared to women who experienced natural menopause," says Anita Koushik, a researcher at the Université de Montréal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and a scientist at the Research Centre of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. "This increased risk of lung cancer was particularly observed among women who had non-natural menopause by having had both their ovaries surgically removed." EurekAlert sylvain-jacques.desjardins@umontreal.ca Canada Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-07/18/content_8443677.htm http://tobacco.org/news/287367.html A smoker in Wuhan, Hubei province, dumped by his girlfriend for bad breath, has written a 10,000-character manifesto on kicking the butt. The 28-year-old man had been a smoker for 12 years. He said he wrote the manifesto, which he posted online, to demonstrate his determination to quit smoking and urge others to stub the killer stick as well. China Daily China Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122267088/abstract http://tobacco.org/news/287356.html Introduction. Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among men. Many studies have evaluated the effect of cigarette smoking on levels of male reproductive hormones; however, the findings still remain controversial. . . . Conclusion. In this study, smokers and nonsmokers had similar mean values of androgens, gonadotropins and SHBG. However, it is necessary to standardize pack-years of smoking in order to elucidate the influence of cigarette smoking on sex hormone levels, as well as to minimize differences among studies and to confirm our results. Wiley InterScience grazihal@gmail.com Brazil Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.eje-online.org/cgi/content/full/152/4/491 http://tobacco.org/news/287355.html Smoking has multiple effects on hormone secretion, some of which are associated with important clinical implications. These effects are mainly mediated by the pharmacological action of nicotine and also by toxins such as thiocyanate. Smoking affects pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, testicular and ovarian function, calcium metabolism and the action of insulin. The major salient clinical effects are the increased risk and severity of Graves’ hyperthyroidism and opthalmopathy, osteoporosis and reduced fertility. Smoking also contributes to the development of insulin resistance and hence type 2 diabetes mellitus. An important concern is also the effect of smoking on the foetus and young children. Passive transfer of thiocyanate can cause disturbance of thyroid size and function. Furthermore, maternal smoking causes increased catecholamine production, which may contribute to under perfusion of the foetoplacental unit. . . . In males, the effect of smoking on androgen levels is important, given the recent interest in the association between low androgen levels and the metabolic syndrome, and coronary heart disease (90). Various studies examining the effects of smoking on serum testosterone levels have reported conflicting findings largely due to difficulties in the hormonal assays. Testosterone has a circadian rhythm with levels peaking between 0600 and 0800 h and reaching a nadir between 1800 and 2000 h. A significant proportion of the circulating total testosterone is inactive as it is tightly bound to SHBG (65–80%), whereas the biologically active fraction circulates either free (1–3%) in circulation or loosely bound to albumin (20–40%). The free plus the albumin-bound testosterone is called the bioavailable testosterone. Thus levels of total testosterone can be affected by changes in the levels of SHBG and other plasma proteins. Significantly increased (41, 91–95), decreased (96, 97) and unchanged levels of total testosterone (64, 98, 99) in male smokers have been reported in various studies. Free testosterone levels have also been found to be higher among smokers (41, 91, 92, 94, 95). However, SHBG levels have been measured only in three studies (92, 93, 95) and are reported to be higher amongst smokers. No significant differences in the levels of bioavailable testosterone have been demonstrated between smokers and non-smokers (92, 93). English and colleagues (92) demonstrated that the increase in total testosterone observed in smokers is due to the raised SHBG levels. They also reported that SHBG levels and not testosterone correlated with serum nicotine levels, a measure of cigarette smoking. However, Svartberg et al. (95) found a positive association between testosterone and smoking even after adjusting for SHBG though other plasma proteins were not taken into account. It would seem likely that the effects of smoking on testosterone levels are due to changes in plasma-binding capacity rather than a direct effect of nicotine on androgens. . . . Smoking is an important modifier of hormones and a detailed smoking history is essential when assessing patients with endocrine disorders. The hormonal responses to smoking are responsible for the increased prevalence of several diseases in smokers. Graves’ disease and particularly Graves’ ophthalmopathy are strongly associated with smoking. Autoimmune thyroiditis and small goiters are also more commonly seen in smokers. Similarly, osteoporosis is linked to smoking through its effects on various hormones, in particular the anti-oestrogenic effect in women, which causes fertility problems and premature menopause in smokers as well. Insulin resistance is also more common in smokers and may contribute to the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease. More pronounced responses are seen in heavy smokers as compared with light smokers reflecting the direct toxicogenic effect of cigarette smoke. Maternal smoking affects the infants in a similar way to adults. It is also possible that passive smoking could also affect the growth of young children through decrease in GH, as seen in chronic smokers. The rewards of giving up smoking are thus both immediate and substantial. European Journal of Endocrinology Fri, 01 Apr 2005 05:00:00 GMT http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AUSTRALIA_HAPPILY_EVER_AFTER?SITE=WSAW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT http://tobacco.org/news/287277.html If you're looking for happily ever after, Australian researchers have a suggestion: Find a partner who shares your smoking habits. Researchers at Australian National University studied 2,482 married or cohabiting heterosexual couples over a seven-year period to pinpoint what the relationships that were still going strong had over ones that fizzled. . . . The study released this week - called "What's Love Got to Do With It?" . . . A nicotine habit can have a profound impact. Relationships in which one partner smoked and the other didn't saw their risk of separation shoot to more than 75 percent of those in which neither partner smoked. AP Australia Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT