You may have never smoked or vaped yourself, but chances are you’ve walked through a cloud of sweet-smelling vapour or know someone who’s switched from smoking to vaping thinking it was the “healthier” choice. The reality? Vaping may seem cleaner than smoking, but it still carries serious health risks—especially if you have endometriosis or are trying to conceive.
The Hidden Dangers of Vaping
Vaping, or using e-cigarettes, involves inhaling a vapour made up of water and a cocktail of added chemicals that produce flavour and scent. Although it doesn’t produce smoke like traditional cigarettes, vaping introduces a range of toxic substances into your body.
These include:
- Formaldehyde – found in disinfectants, known to cause cancer.
- Chlorine – the main ingredient in bleach.
- Benzene – used in bug sprays and known to damage DNA.
- Acrolein – a component of weed killers, toxic to the lungs and heart.
- Isonicotine – used in rat poison and highly damaging to internal organs.
Even more concerning, the heating element in e-cigarettes often releases toxic metals like mercury and lead, which you then inhale. These metals don’t come from the liquid itself but from the vape device. Studies have found higher levels of heavy metals in people who vape than those who smoked cigarettes—raising serious concerns for long-term health.
Vaping Increases Inflammation
If you have endometriosis, this next point is critical. Endometriosis is an inflammatory condition. Your immune system is already in overdrive, producing pro-inflammatory cytokines that drive pain, fatigue, and other symptoms.
Vaping increases inflammation in the body. Those toxic particles inhaled into your lungs don’t just stay there—they enter your bloodstream and circulate throughout your body. This systemic inflammation can aggravate your endometriosis, worsening symptoms and potentially speeding up the progression of the disease.
What About Fertility?
If you’re trying to conceive, vaping poses another risk. Many of the chemicals and metals found in e-cigarette vapour can damage DNA, which is the last thing you want when producing high-quality eggs and embryos. Damaged DNA affects fertility outcomes and increases the risk of miscarriage or complications.
In short, vaping isn’t just bad for your lungs—it could directly impact your ability to get pregnant and carry a healthy pregnancy.
Vaping and Gut Health
We now know that gut health is foundational to overall wellbeing, especially for people with endometriosis. Many already suffer from leaky gut and a disrupted gut microbiome.
Vaping compounds this issue. Research shows it:
- Reduces the diversity of healthy gut bacteria
- Increases gut permeability, making leaky gut worse
- Drives dysbiosis, where harmful bacteria outnumber beneficial ones
A healthy gut helps manage inflammation, supports your immune system, and balances hormones—all essential for managing endometriosis naturally. Vaping works directly against this.
Second-Hand Vapour Is Still a Risk
Even if you don’t vape, being around others who do can still impact your health. Those sweet-smelling vapours contain fine particles that linger in the air. If you can smell it, you’re breathing it in—and absorbing those same chemicals and metals.
So if someone close to you vapes, encourage them to do it away from you. And if you vape yourself, now is the time to rethink it, especially if you’re working to reduce inflammation, support your fertility, or heal your gut.
If you’d like to talk to me more about vaping and Endometriosis, or any other concerns regarding your Endometriosis, book a complimentary Endometriosis Discovery Call now: https://theendometriosisnutritionist.online/endometriosis-discovery-call/