How does smoking affect fertility?
Smoking has a negative impact on the ability of a couple to conceive
The health risks associated with tobacco smoking as well as breathing in second hand smoke are well known. Smoking affects the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. However, though the medical profession has been aware of considerable effects of smoking on fertility, the public seems to be in the dark as far as this issue is concerned. It's time to spread the word that smoking has a negative effect on the ability of a couple to conceive and to carry pregnancy to term.
All the scientific research to date supports the fact that smoking has an adverse effect on fertility. The rate of infertility among smokers is much higher. Smokers who do conceive take much longer to do so. In reality, active smoking by either partner has this effect, and the effect is not much lessened when the exposure to smoke is second hand.
Smoking damages woman's ovaries
Research indicates that smoking damages a woman's ovaries. How much damage is incurred depends on the length of time a woman has been smoking as much as how many cigarettes a day she smokes. It is likely that smoking accelerates both the loss of eggs and reproductive function. Smoking also brings on the onset of menopause much sooner; by several years. It has been proved that chemicals in tobacco smoke interfere with the ability to manufacture estrogen and may predispose a woman's eggs to genetic abnormalities.
Spontaneous miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies occur at greater frequencies among smokers. Smokers require twice the attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF) than nonsmokers. Smokers also require higher doses of gonadotropins to stimulate their ovaries. They also have lower peak estradiol levels, fewer eggs obtained, as well as more canceled cycles.
The adverse impact of cigarette smoking is viewed to be greater in older women. It is quite likely that assisted reproduction may not be able to counteract the negative effects of smoking on reproduction.
Men who smoke have a lower sperm count and the sperms that they produce have less motility, and a greater incidence of abnormalities in shape and function.
An important study showed that quitting smoking for 2 months prior to attempts at IVF greatly improved chances of conception. Long-term smoking can possibly have a lasting effect on female reproductive function. The adverse effects of smoking on fertility can be reversed by having the couples stop smoking prior to the treatment.
In a nutshell, following are the reasons why you should quit if you're trying to conceive:
Women
- Decreases fertility by delaying time to conception: delay of 1 year or greater found to be 3 to 4 times more likely in smokers
- Infertility more prevalent in smokers as compare to non-smokers
- Linked to increase in menstrual dysfunction
- Linked to earlier onset of menopause (by as much as 2 years)
- Linked to both cervical and tubal factor infertility
- Possibly linked to implantation failure and resultant miscarriage
- Linked to decreased successful IVF embryo transfer
- Increased incidence of ectopic (tubal) pregnancy
Men
- Higher risk of chromosomal damage which can cause genetic abnormalities in offspring
- Greater risk of chromosomal damage that can lead to increased miscarriage rate
- Higher risk of erectile dysfunction (impotence)
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