How smoking can affect your fertility?

The negative health consequences of smoking have been a public health concern. Hence, the Malaysia Health Ministry has put on various efforts and campaigns to discourage people from smoking. 

Smoking is not good for fertility due many health hazard effects of cigarette toxins and smoke towards fertility.

Numerous studies in scientific journals demonstrated various negative effects of smoking towards fertility decline. 

In fact, your fertility decline may get accelerated in tandem with other unhealthy habits such as poor eating habits and heavy alcohol consumption. 

Couples who smoke may find it more difficult to conceive, for both men and women. For men, smoking can lead to impotence in men because it affects the blood vessels in the penis. Smoking also reduces sperm count and degrades sperm quality. Smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction and pregnancy complications.

For women, smoking may make your hormonal imbalance get worse. The ovulation may halt or stop altogether. The decline in egg quality is also due to negative effects of first smoker, second smoker or third smoker. 

In combination with poor egg quality and sperm quality, additional dangers of smoking or exposing to cigarette smoke as follows:

• Pregnancy loss/miscarriage
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
• Premature birth
• Low birth weight
• Infant illnesses
• Defect fetus 

How does smoking affect female fertility and eggs?

Smoking has a direct impact on your fertility and the quality of your eggs. Your egg quality, measured in terms of size, fecundity, ability to be fertilized and its genetic material integrity may decline with exposure to cigarette smoke.

In fact, smoking women experience early menopause one to four years earlier than non-smokers.

The toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke accelerate egg loss in your ovary. The loss of female egg cells cannot be replaced once they die. As the egg reserves in your ovary is limited, the sudden decline in egg cells will hamper your conceiving effort.

Smoking also accelerates your menopause. Women who are smoking may risk  early menopause one to four years earlier than women who are non-smokers.

How does smoking affect male fertility and sperm?

Smoking affects male fertility by reducing the sperm’s ability to fertilise a female’s egg. Men who smoke have lower sperm counts and poorer sperm quality and motility.

Men who smoke will also have more defect  sperms than non-smokers. Their sperms may have abnormal shapes such as sperms with two heads, weak or non-motile sperm.

In terms of sexual performance, smoking can boost their risk of erectile dysfunction or impotence. A man who smokes may find it harder to get and maintain his penis erection for sexual intercourse. Erectile dysfunction is due to damaged blood vessels towards the penis due to toxins from cigarettes.

Erectile dysfunction may lead to reduced sexual desire, stress, embarrassment and marital issues.

How can smoking impact your ability to conceive?

Women who smoke are less likely to conceive than women who do not smoke. Therefore, women who are smoking may take longer to get pregnant due to decline with their fecundability.

In fact, smoking can reduce a couple’s chance to get conceived by half every month. 

Smoking can reduce the effects of fertility therapies like IVF.  Women who smoke are more likely  to have IVF failures than women who do not smoke. 

There are various factors that contribute to low fecundability and lower chance for IVF success among women who smoke.

Women who smoke have fewer  eggs available for retrieval for in-vitro fertilization. Their egg quality is lower, hence lower chance for fertilization success. The decline in egg quality is due to cadmium and other toxins in cigarettes, which inhibit proper follicle development in your ovary.

Toxic chemicals in cigarettes such as nicotine may decrease the endometrium wall thickness. This makes embryo implantation more difficult, hence high failure pregnancy rate among women who smoke.

Tobacco use harms the genetic material in sperm and eggs, which leads to early miscarriage and birth defects. 

Does second-hand smoking affect fertility?

Second-hand smoking, also known as passive smoking, can influence your chances of conceiving. When someone near you smokes a cigarette, most of the cigarette smoke escapes into the environment.

The toxins from cigarettes may stick on your clothes, furniture, and even linger in the room where the smoker was. 

As you inhale the air polluted with cigarette smoke, you are inhaling toxins from the cigarette smoke. 

Therefore, your health and fertility get affected with exposure to cigarette smoke, even if you are not smoking.

How smoking can affect my children’s health?

The effects of smoking on the future health of your child are being discovered all the time.

• A smoker’s child is also more likely to suffer asthma or die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Babies born with a low birth weight are more likely to develop certain medical problems in the future, such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
• An epidemiological study discovered that men with smoking mothers will smoke up to 10 cigarettes (or more) per day. These men were shown to have lower sperm counts than men whose mothers did not smoke.
   

How quitting smoking can improve your fertility?

Although egg loss cannot be reversed, quitting smoking will improve your fertility and the quality of your eggs. Your endometrium wall will get thicken to support healthy embryo implantation, which in turn boost your pregnancy success.

Your fertility will go back to optimum level within 90 days post-quitting. After adjustment, you may notice your body is having consistent ovulation and menstrual cycle.

You may also begin to experience ovulation signs such as  in pelvic pain or egg white discharge from your vagina during your most fertile period.

In short, the longer you go without smoking, the less likely you are to have pregnancy issues.

How long will it take to improve your sperm quality after quitting smoking?

As the production and development of fresh sperm take two to three months, an improvement in sperm quality can be seen two to three months after stopping smoking. The sooner you stop smoking, the better your sperm quality and quantity will be.

Visiting Health Centre to help you to stop smoking

The sooner you stop smoking, the better. In addition to the benefits to your fertility, you will notice an improvement in your overall physical health.

If  any of you or your partner are having trouble quitting smoking, get smoking treatment from your nearest local health clinics. Most local health clinics such as Klinik Kesihatan KKM are offering smoking cessation services to help you quit smoking habits.