DISCUSSION
This study assessed the impact of smoking on the number of children and age at menopause using a population-based setting. Many studies have investigated fertility and smoking in the setting of medically assisted procreation. But this subpopulation was clearly different of the general population, as it has sought medical assistance, because of an initial fertility problem. Conclusion on this subpopulation could not be extrapolated in the general population, and this could explain the difference between our results and the previous findings. Our results confirm the deleterious effect of smoking among women on the number of children and in accelerating the occurrence of menopause. Conversely, no consistent dose–effect relationship between heaviness of smoking (as assessed by HSI) and the number of children was found.
