How Does Smoking Effect Conception & Fertility

Women smokers who try for a baby may take up to two months longer to conceive than non-smokers, doctors say.

Women have a 40% lower chance of getting pregnant if they smoke, according to a report published today by the British Medical Association (BMA). Smoking and passive smoking was also responsible for up to 5,000 miscarriages and 120,000 cases of male impotence in men aged between 30 and 50 every year, said the report, Smoking and Reproductive Life, by the BMA's board of science and tobacco control resource centre.

The 70-page report also pointed to new evidence that smoking increased the chances of foetal malformation such as cleft lip and palate.

cleft lip ovulation

Mr. Munafo stressed that smoking made conception harder for all women. It is not clear how smoking damages women's fertility, but it may affect the release of an egg before fertilisation or the quality of the eggs.

Meanwhile, scientists suspect that smoking may increase a man's risk of infertility because it causes several changes in the male reproductive system that may interfere with its normal functioning.

Toxic substances from cigarette smoke have been found in the semen (the fluid that contains the sperm) of smokers; they make their way there from the smoker's bloodstream. These toxic substances may damage the sperm. As a result, smokers have fewer sperm than non-smokers do, and their sperm are more likely to be abnormal. Smoking may also modify the levels of reproductive hormones in men.

Normal & abnormal sperms

If a couple is having infertility problems and the man is a smoker, doctors usually advise the man to quit smoking, since this might increase the couple's chances of having a baby. Quitting smoking is actually a good idea for any man who wants to become a father, even if the man doesn't have infertility problems. Smoking by parents is bad for the health of their children. And of course, parents who smoke are harming their own health as well.