Quitting smoking, a gesture that is in our hands to favour reproduction treatment (30/08/16)

During vacation we have more moments of entertainment and leisure with friends. In these situations, often, tobacco is a guest at the tables of the terraces, thus during the month of August tobacco consumption increases. However, we should not forget how damaging it is for our health and for those around us. We are all aware of its harmful effects, even more in cases of pregnant women, but one also should keep in mind it can hinder a process of assisted reproduction.

For men, the consequences of tobacco in relation to fertility focus on semen quality and may cause damage to sperm DNA level, which would alter the genetic material. In the same case for women, components of it affect DNA of the oocyte progenitor cells, causing changes in them, which induce their own destruction of losing the quality (apoptosis phenomenon) and therefore reduces ovarian reserve. Likewise, it also negatively affects the embryo quality, increasing chromosomal abnormalities. All these factors could cause aging up to 10 years of female reproductive capacity.

However, not all of these effects are irreversible. Some decrease if smoking is abandoned for a prolonged period. At Institut Marquès we recommend to quit a year before undergoing a process of assisted reproduction. There are few things that do not depend on genetics and fate, but precisely this is one of the variables in the hands of future parents. In those cases, when the future mother do not quit smoking, a mayor dosage of gonadotropin may be needed and can also increase ectopic pregnancy risk. All this suppose an increase of failure rate of assisted reproductive techniques.

But the negative consequences do not end there. Even if pregnancy is achieved, the risk of complications for mother and foetus increases notoriously compared to women who do not smoke (premature birth, abortions, low weight of babies …). Besides, different studies have showed mother`s habit to smoke can cause infertility problems of her children, reducing concentration and motility of spermatozoa in boys and shortening the fertile life in girls.
The step to quit smoking is in our hands, educating ourselves of benefits we would gain. With appropriate help the aim is much easier to be achieved.