If you smoke, or even if you don’t, you know that smoking is bad for you. You know that you should quit, and most women striving to get pregnant absolutely promise to not touch a cigarette once they finally conceive. I have always thought that there were two pretty distinct approaches to dealing with infertility. There are those that use the infertility diagnosis as inspiration to be as healthy and fit as possible in hopes that something they are eating or drinking or doing is having a negative impact. Then there are others who claim to take advantage of the time of not being pregnant by doing everything they wouldn’t be able to do if they were. I was in the latter category. I indulged vices, and while sitting late night in a smoke-filled bar with a cocktail in hand I probably even uttered something along the lines of “I might as well since I can’t get pregnant.”
When it comes to smoking this sentiment can be very harmful. Smoking has a direct negative impact on a woman’s fertility. Smokers experience infertility more often than non-smokers and it takes longer for smokers to conceive if they are able to do so without assistance. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine distributes a fact sheet regarding smoking and fertility that cautions that smokers not only have a more difficult time conceiving but also carrying a pregnancy to term. The toxins in cigarette smoke affect both eggs and ovaries contributing to accelerated loss of reproductive ability, and in fact aging eggs and reproductive function prematurely leading to an increased incidence of genetic abnormalities.
If that isn’t a compelling enough reason to quit even before you are pregnant, research also shows that smokers do not respond as well as non-smokers to infertility treatments. Studies of IVF patients who are smokers have shown that more attempts are needed for a smoker to conceive and that chances of success in each treatment cycle are severely diminished for female smokers. It has also been proven that those who smoke require higher doses of stim medications, on average have fewer eggs retrieved, have more cancelled cycles, lower implantation rates, and an increased number of miscarriages.
Amid all of this bad news is hope. Although smoking does cause some irreparable damage, the harmful effects can be halted to a degree if the patient quits smoking prior to treatment. Women who stop smoking can salvage their fertility and do have better treatment outcomes if they do stop smoking. My doctor required me to sign a form that said that I was not a tobacco user in the month prior to beginning the IVF cycle. He believed so strongly in the detrimental effects of smoking on fertility treatment that he did not even think it was worth it to perform an IVF procedure if a patient continued to smoke. I don’t necessarily think that a person should be denied treatment if they refuse to quit – but I also don’t know why anyone would not attempt to stop smoking once they have this information. Smoking has a profound negative impact on reproductive success, both naturally and with treatment. The good news is that quitting, even if it is just in the month or two before treatment, can make a difference.
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