Smoking Cessation and Menstrual Cycle Phase

Summary

Tobacco use is a risk factor for at least 20 types of cancer and remains the leading preventable cause of cancer in Canada. Smoking cessation is an important cancer prevention strategy for the close to 2 million Canadian women who currently smoke. However, findings from controlled trials and real-world clinical settings indicate that women have greater difficulty achieving abstinence following a quit attempt than men. There is some evidence that hormonal levels and fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle (MC) may contribute to the greater difficulty women experience when trying to quit smoking. In this study, the start of a quit attempt using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) will be targeted to specific phases of MC. It was hypothesized that starting a quit attempt during the first half of MC (follicular phase) will result in increased quit success compared to starting during the second half of MC (luteal phase) or the usual practice of not targeting quit start date to MC phase.

Timeline

Start

2022-11-30

Primary completion

2026-04-30

Completion

2026-12-31

Publications

• Background Carpenter MJ, Saladin ME, Leinbach AS, Larowe SD, Upadhyaya HP. Menstrual phase effects on smoking cessation: a pilot feasibility study. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2008 Mar;17(2):293-301. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2007.0415.
• Background Franklin TR, Ehrman R, Lynch KG, Harper D, Sciortino N, O'Brien CP, Childress AR. Menstrual cycle phase at quit date predicts smoking status in an NRT treatment trial: a retrospective analysis. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2008 Mar;17(2):287-92. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2007.0423.
• Background Piper ME, Cook JW, Schlam TR, Jorenby DE, Smith SS, Bolt DM, Loh WY. Gender, race, and education differences in abstinence rates among participants in two randomized smoking cessation trials. Nicotine Tob Res. 2010 Jun;12(6):647-57. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntq067. Epub 2010 May 3.
• Background Poirier AE, Ruan Y, Grevers X, Walter SD, Villeneuve PJ, Friedenreich CM, Brenner DR; ComPARe Study Team. Estimates of the current and future burden of cancer attributable to active and passive tobacco smoking in Canada. Prev Med. 2019 May;122:9-19. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.03.015.
• Background Saladin ME, McClure EA, Baker NL, Carpenter MJ, Ramakrishnan V, Hartwell KJ, Gray KM. Increasing progesterone levels are associated with smoking abstinence among free-cycling women smokers who receive brief pharmacotherapy. Nicotine Tob Res. 2015 Apr;17(4):398-406. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntu262.
• Background Smith PH, Bessette AJ, Weinberger AH, Sheffer CE, McKee SA. Sex/gender differences in smoking cessation: A review. Prev Med. 2016 Nov;92:135-140. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.07.013. Epub 2016 Jul 26.
• Background Statistics Canada. (2020). Smokers, by age group. Retrieved August 23, 2021, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310009610&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=3.3&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2018&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2019&referencePeriods=20180101%2C20190101
• Background World Health Organization. (2020). Who report on cancer: Setting priorities, investing wisely and providing care for all. World Health Organization. Retrieved August 12, 2022, from https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240001299
• Background Weinberger AH, Smith PH, Allen SS, Cosgrove KP, Saladin ME, Gray KM, Mazure CM, Wetherington CL, McKee SA. Systematic and meta-analytic review of research examining the impact of menstrual cycle phase and ovarian hormones on smoking and cessation. Nicotine Tob Res. 2015 Apr;17(4):407-21. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntu249.
• Zawertailo L, Kabir T, Voci S, Tanzini E, Attwells S, Malat L, Veldhuizen S, Minian N, Dragonetti R, Melamed OC, Mei-Dan E, Selby P. Coordinating smoking cessation treatment with menstrual cycle phase to improve quit outcomes (MC-NRT): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2023 Apr 1;24(1):251. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07196-1.

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Indications