YourBabyGuide.com

There are no debates on this matter – smoking and infertility are very strongly linked. I assume you’re thinking how on earth you’ll surrender your daily (hourly?) fix but once you hear the facts you might be able to make a decision.

Even if you don’t have any other fertility problems, if you smoke you’ll take longer to conceive than a non-smoker. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that kissing a smoker is comparable to sucking on an ashtray, and sex drive is also influenced by smoking, both of which will cut your chances of getting pregnant. Your chances of getting pregnant at any specific time are apparently 40% lower than someone who has never smoked, according to the BMA (British Medical Association). The same guys say that 5000 miscarriages and 120 000 cases of male impotence are brought about by smoking yearly. Miscarriages and impotence – that sounds pretty stressful to me. I was under the impression that smoking was supposed to relieve stress, not cause it!

I know some crazy teenagers who might take that to mean that smoking can be exploited as a type of contraception. Smoking in pregnancy can have damaging effects on your unborn child. If you smoke prior to and throughout pregnancy, you have an greater risk of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy and your baby has an increased chance of having a abnormality such as cleft lip and palate. Your baby is also more likely to be born early and underweight – certainly not ideal – and your child is more prone to have chest problems such as asthma later on. Smoking, you or someone else in your house, also increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). That sounds like a large amount of stress and expense that could be avoided, without taking into account the effect that these problems can have on your child’s quality of life later on.

It seems that it’s the woman’s eggs that are affected by smoking, but the ovaries can also be injured. Smoking also impacts how your body manufactures estrogen, which also affects your fertility negatively. The guy’s fertility could also be negatively influenced by smoking. The scientists think that smoking can cause low numbers of sperm and increase the odds of having deformed sperm, not the best if you are aiming for a healthy baby! Even though there is less proof to link smoking and male infertility, if you think you’re off the hook, think again. Passive smoking is almost as harmful as active smoking for a woman’s fertility.

Smoking will definitely not improve your state of affairs if you already have fertility problems. It’s bad enough to have to go through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) once – but smokers usually need double the number of treatments than non-smokers before the procedure works. IVF is already quite pricey, over $12 000 each time. I’m not keen to have to pay double! Female smokers also require higher doses of fertility medication and the drugs are still not as successful as they would be in a non-smoker.

The degree of harm done does depend on the quantity of cigarettes you smoke and how long you’ve been smoking for. The encouraging news is that if you stop you could restore your fertility to just about as good as pre-smoking levels, even though some ovary damage can’t be fixed. So for your own wellbeing, to increase your chances of conceiving and having a healthy baby who will become a healthy adult, and to save yourself stacks of money in cigarettes and medical care, don’t overlook these links between smoking and infertility.

Here is more information on Reasons for Infertility. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Infertility.