Does Smoking Make You Infertile?

There are numerous diseases that have been linked to smoking. It affects not only the smoker but his/her family too. Heart diseases, lung cancers, tuberculosis are considered to be some of the deadly diseases related to smoking. But do you know that smoking makes you infertile as well?

SMOKING RISK: HOW LONG WILL YOU LIVE? FIND OUT

That’s true; researches across the globe have come to the conclusion that smoking effects on fertility can be clearly linked. Be it male or female, smoking makes you infertile to a great extent.

And the effects of smoking are not just limited to primary smokers. Secondary or passive smokers too are at great risk. Whether you smoke or your partner smokes, it is going to cause equal damage to the fertilisation capacity of both partners.

Effects of smoking
How does smoking affect the fertility of an individual? You could be asking this question yourself since smoking is not directly related to the reproductive system as it is related to the lungs. When you inhale the cigarette smoke, you take it into your body and allow it to get absorbed. When absorbed, it is bound to show ‘results’. Following are some of the effects smoking has on fertility of both males and females.

Low sperm count: The more the number of sperms, the higher the chances of conceiving. But when the sperm count dips, the fertilising chances are bound to go low.

Low sperm motility: This refers to the swimming capacity of a sperm. The better a sperm swims, the more chances it has of fertilising an egg. With a poor swimming capability, the sperm will hardly be able to reach the egg to fertilise it. Though not a direct infertility case yet, it does affect the fertilisation capacity.

Hampered egg transportation: Smoking makes you infertile if the egg faces difficulty in transportation through the fallopian tube to the womb. If the egg is not able to reach the womb, there will be no chances of fertilisation.

Damaged DNA: Smoking effects on fertility have also been seen in the form of damaged DNA. When a sperm or egg contains damaged DNA, its fertilisation capacity is severely affected. Even if fertilised, the chances of miscarriages always persist.

Erectile dysfunction: When a man suffers from erectile dysfunction, he will have trouble getting and maintaining an erection. One possible cause of this problem is smoking and hence, it can be said that smoking makes your infertile.

Hormonal imbalance: With multiple chemicals entering the blood stream, the hormones of both males and females are affected. With hormones being affected, the reproductive system of the body also goes for a toss.

Early menopause: Smoking affects fertility as the eggs loss rate shoots up in females. These lost eggs cannot be replaced and it further leads to early menopause which in turn means reduced chances of getting pregnant.