It's that time of the month to quit smoking

Women: If you made it your New Year's resolution to give up smoking, it might help to try to quit at a certain time of the month.

University of Montreal psychiatry researchers believe that women may have stronger cravings for nicotine just after menstruation, when their female hormones are at their lowest.

The scientists used magnetic resonance imaging machines to scan the brains of 19 female and 11 male smokers to measure what happened when they saw tempting pictures of cigarettes.

When shown a picture related to smoking, a woman who had just completed menstruation had far more parts of her brain light up.

This included the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry Adrianna Mendrek of the University of Montreal said: "Our data reveals that incontrollable urges to smoke are stronger at the beginning of the follicular phase that begins after menstruation.

"Hormonal decreases of oestrogen and progesterone possibly deepen the withdrawal syndrome and increase activity of neural circuits associated with craving."

After ovulation, in what is called the luteal phase, only small parts of the right hippocampus (medial temporal lobe of the brain) lit up when the same woman was shown cigarette images.

Mendrek believes it could therefore be easier for women to overcome nicotine withdrawal symptoms after ovulation, during the luteal phase.

This phase happens when levels of oestrogen and progesterone are elevated. This phase takes between 12 and 16 days before the next menstruation.

The study was published in Psychiatry Journal.

In South Africa, 16% of adults smoke, according to a study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council.