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The health risks of tobacco smoking are well-known with regard to diseases of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Substantial harmful effects of cigarette smoke on fertility outcomes have been scientifically proven and documented. Smoking has proven to have a negative impact on the ability to become pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term.
Smoking can affect both women's and men's reproductive abilities, which is why seeking treatment may be in your best interest. At The Berkley Center for Reproductive Wellness, we offer a treatment program for smoking in our Manhattan fertility clinic. We have seen great success using this proprietary approach to help reverse the effects of smoking on fertility. Smoking cessation improves success rates.
The prevalence of infertility is higher and the time it takes to conceive is longer in smokers compared to nonsmokers. Active smoking by either partner has adverse effects, and the impact of passive cigarette smoke exposure is only slightly smaller than for active smoking. Research indicates that cigarette smoking is harmful to a woman’s ovaries and the degree of harm is dependent upon the amount and the period of time a woman smokes. Smoking appears to accelerate the loss of eggs and reproductive function and may advance the time of menopause by several years.
Smoking is strongly associated with an increased risk of spontaneous miscarriage and possibly ectopic pregnancy as well. Pregnant smokers are more likely to have low birth weight babies and premature birth. The incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) also increases in households where someone smokes.
Nearly twice as many in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts are required to conceive in smokers than in nonsmokers. Studies of IVF have reported that female smokers require higher doses of gonadotropins to stimulate their ovaries, have lower peak estradiol levels, fewer oocytes obtained, and more canceled cycles, lower implantation rates, and undergo more cycles with failed fertilization than nonsmokers.