You know that smoking’s bad for you. But you may not know about the strong relationship between smoking and fertility problems. Did you know that both active smoking and passive smoking affect fertility? Actually, passive smoking (inhaling your partner’s smoke or the smoke of someone else who lives with you) is only slightly less harmful to fertility than active smoking.
The facts about smoking and fertility
Smokers take longer to conceive than non-smokers and are more likely to have fertility issues.
The figures about smoking and fertility
- The risk of infertility among smokers may be twice that of non-smokers.
- Women who smoke are at least 1.5 times more likely than non-smokers to take longer than a year to get pregnant. If a male partner is a heavy smoker, this will significantly contribute to delayed conception.
- Female passive smokers are more likely than women in non-smoking homes to take more than a year to get pregnant.
- Smoking women reach menopause earlier than non-smoking women.
- The more you smoke the more you risk affecting your fertility – both your ability to get pregnant and the time it takes to get pregnant.
- Smoking during pregnancy puts your baby at risk of health problems.
- The good news? It’s estimated that most of the negative effects of smoking on fertility are reversed a year after stopping smoking.
