How Smoking Prevents You From Getting Pregnant

Factors Affecting fertility 

Lifestyle (Smoking)

Smoking


If you're a smoker or you know someone who smokes, this article is very important for you as well.

There is no safe limit for smoking, the only way to protect yourself and your unborn baby from harm is to quit.

Men and women who smoke are more likely to have fertility problems and take longer to conceive than non-smokers.

The chemicals in cigarettes damage eggs and sperm, and can affect a baby’s health.
Men and women who smoke take longer to get pregnant than non-smokers. Second-hand smoke is almost as damaging as smoking and women who are exposed to second-hand smoke take longer to conceive than women who are not. The chemicals in cigarettes can cause damage to eggs and sperm which affects a future child's health.

Why? Because smoking affects every stage of the reproduction process – in both men and women.

Smoking affects:
.. DNA (genetic material) in eggs and sperm
... men’s and women’s hormone production
.. the fertilised egg’s ability to reach the uterus.
... the environment inside the uterus, where the baby grows.


Research shows that smokers are more likely to experience infertility than non-smokers.

Quitting at least three months before trying for a baby is important to make sure the sperm is healthy when the baby is conceived.

It's a myth to think that Passive smoking (inhaling someone else’s smoke) doesn’t affect the chance of having a baby, or the baby’s health.


It's a fact that Women who are exposed to other people’s smoke take longer to get pregnant. Passive smoking is almost as damaging to your unborn baby's health as smoking.

Men
Men who smoke can have problems getting and keeping erections.
Smoking damages the DNA (genetic material) in sperm, which is transferred to the baby.
Men produce sperm all the time, which takes  about three months to mature. This is why quitting at least three months before trying for a baby is important to make sure the sperm is healthy when the baby is conceived.
Heavy smoking (more than 20 cigarettes per day) by fathers at the time of conception increases the child’s risk of childhood leukemia.

Women
Women who smoke in pregnancy are more likely than non-smokers to have a miscarriage. Their babies have increased risk of low birth weight, being born prematurely and having birth defects.
If women are exposed to cigarette smoke during pregnancy, including inhaling other people’s smoke (passive smoking) it can affect the development of a baby girl’s ovaries.
Every cigarette smoked increases the risk of miscarriage by one percent.
Smoking increases a woman’s risk of having an ectopic pregnancy, where the baby starts to develop outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube, where it will not survive, and is dangerous for the mother

The good news
A healthy baby starts with healthy sperm and healthy eggs. The good news is that the effects of smoking on eggs and sperm and fertility are reversible. Whether it’s the male or the female (or both) who smokes, quitting will increase the chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby.

If men quit:
It doesn’t matter how long a man has smoked for. As soon as he stops smoking, his sperm will become healthier.

It takes about three months for sperm to mature. Men who quit at least three months before conception will have much healthier sperm with a greater chance of fertilising an egg, and creating a healthy baby.

If women quit:

Quitting improves the chance of getting pregnant.

Stopping smoking can improve natural fertility and some of the effects of smoking can be reversed within a year of quitting.

Women who quit smoking before conception or within the first three months of pregnancy reduce the risk of their baby being born prematurely to the same level of risk for non-smokers.

Women who stop smoking early in their pregnancy have babies with similar birth weights as babies born to non-smokers. Women who quit before their third trimester can avoid much of the effects smoking has on birth weight.
Consider watching our video on how Lifestyle in general affects smoking.
👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼