Lifestyle Management
Smoking and Fertility
Effect on Male Fertility
- Smoking reduces the male hormones
- More importantly….There is a higher rate of impotence in men who smoke
- Male smokers have decreased sperm quality and increased presence of fragmented DNA
Effect on Female Fertility
- May affect follicular microenvironment (egg growth and rupture).
- Alter hormone levels and thereby increase the chance of no ovulation and miscarriage.
- The increased thickness of zona pellucida(membrane covering the egg) leading to difficulty in sperm penetration.
- The increased thickness of zona pellucida(membrane covering the egg) leading to difficulty in sperm penetration.
- Smoking women need more time to become pregnant, are less likely to do so spontaneously and have a higher risk of miscarriage in the first trimester
- Smoking women are also found to reach menopause a few years earlier.
- The risk of infertility may be twice as high for smokers when compared with non-smokers.
- Importantly, the impact of passive smoking on women’s natural fertility is only slightly less than that of active smoking.
- Studies show that following IVF clinical pregnancy rates are around 20% in smokers as compared to around 40% in non-smokers.
Results after Stopping smoking
- Sperm analysis after smoking cessation revealed a distinctive improvement in sperm concentration, fast spermatozoa (≥35 μm/s) & sperm vitality.
- Cessation of smoking for at least two months before attempting IVF significantly improved chances for conception.
- Although long-term cigarette smoking can have an irreversible effect on ovarian function, the harmful effect on treatment outcome may, in part, be reversed if smoking is discontinued.
Alcohol and Fertility
- Alcohol is known to be teratogenic and its consumption has been reported to reduce fertility. Induces rise in E2
- Reduces FSH
- Impairs folliculogenesis
- May directly affect ovulation, blastocyst development and implantation
- Reduced conception has been reported already at doses as low as one drink per week.
- The scarce data suggest that female alcohol consumption prior to the IVF centre in Mumbai attempt adversely affects oocyte retrieval and leads to lower pregnancy and higher miscarriage rates
- Male drinking leads to more miscarriages and lower live birth rates.
- Reportedly prolongs time to pregnancy
Caffeine and fertility
- May target ovulation and corpus luteal function
- Higher early follicular E2
- A diet abundant in caffeine may result in delayed conception, infertility and increased risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer later in life.
- For the female partner, common exposures associated with a decrease in fertility are cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption of 4 drinks per week, and caffeine intake of >250 mg daily.