Smoking and infertility – are they linked?
Apologies to the smokers, but smoking and infertility are linked – no doubts. I know you’re thinking how on earth you’ll surrender your daily (hourly?) fix but once you get the facts you may be able to make up your mind for good.
Did you know that all other things being the same, smokers generally take more time to conceive than non-smokers? I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that kissing a smoker bears a big resemblance to sucking on an ashtray, and sex drive is also influenced by smoking, both of which will lessen your chances of conceiving. Your chances of getting pregnant at any specific time are apparently 40% less than someone who hasn’t ever smoked, according to the BMA (British Medical Association). The BMA also assert that 120 000 cases of male impotence and 5000 miscarriages every year are the result of smoking. Smokers say that smoking relieves stress – but from those statistics, it appears as though smoking causes more stress than it helps!
That does not mean that smoking can be employed as extra contraception! When you hear the effect that smoking can have on your unborn baby if (when) you do get pregnant, hopefully you’ll rethink that idea. Is the increased risk of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, deformities like cleft lip or palate really worth it? Smoking during pregnancy often results in a low birth weight or premature birth, which comes with complications of its own, and also shapes your child’s future respiratory health – which means more stress and expense on medical care for you when your child grows up. Moreover, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is more common in households where a family member smokes. Not only will you be disadvantaging your child, but you’ll be causing yourself masses of extra stress and extra expense that you could have avoided.
They say that it’s the woman’s eggs that are influenced by smoking, but the ovaries could also be injured. Having the right estrogen levels is also vital for your fertility and smoking can impact your body’s making of estrogen. The guy’s fertility could also be badly affected by smoking. They think that smoking can cause low sperm count and raise the odds of having malformed sperm, not ideal if you are aiming for a healthy baby! Although there is not as much evidence to link smoking and male infertility, if you think you’re off the hook, think again. A woman’s fertility will be affected by her partner’s smoking just about as acutely as it would be influenced if she smoked herself.
Smoking will definitely not improve your situation if you already battle with infertility. Smokers who intend to have a baby through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) need about twice as many treatments than non-smokers. At more than $12 000 a time, that’s a very costly habit! Female smokers also require higher doses of fertility medication and the medication is still not as successful as they would be in a non-smoker.
The degree of damage done will depend on the quantity of cigarettes you smoke and the amount of time you’ve been smoking for. The encouraging news is that if you stop you could restore your fertility to nearly as good as pre-smoking levels, despite the fact that some ovary damage can’t be fixed. You can’t dispute with these connections between smoking and infertility. Quit smoking, save stacks of money and enhance your chances of getting pregnant and having a healthy child who will still have a healthy parent around when he or she has their own children.
Here is more information on Reasons for Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.