Causes of Male Infertility
Facts About Smoking, Low Sperm Count and Sperm Vitality

The causes of male infertility include smoking.

Facts about smoking and infertility show that for male smokers, one of the health effects of smoking cigarettes may be a low sperm count or low quality of sperm vitality and fertilization potential.

Many animal studies on rats have shown that one of the adverse health effects of smoking cigarettes was low sperm count and poorer motility of sperm.

But is that evidence also applicable to the male smokers among the human population?

When studying fertility in men, researchers look at not only the number of sperm but the quality of sperm as well.

A low sperm count is not the only reason for infertility in men. Those sperm have to be able to reach an egg and penetrate it in order for fertilization to occur. So the quality and nature of the sperm motility and ability to penetrate and fertilize an egg are also examined.

Here are some conclusions reached by researchers regarding the sperm count, density, and fertilization potential in male smokers.

Some Facts about Smoking as one of the Causes of Male Infertility

This study concluded that low sperm count and reduced sperm vitality were two of the adverse health effects of smoking cigarettes.

"Cigarette smoking was associated with a significant decrease in sperm density (-15.3%), total sperm count (-17.5%), total number of motile sperm (-16.6%), and citrate concentration (-22.4%). The percentage of normal forms was significantly reduced in smokers, and sperm vitality, ejaculate volume, and fructose concentration were slightly but nonsignificantly affected.

CONCLUSION(S): Cigarette smoking is associated with reduced semen quality."

These researchers concluded that smoking may be a cause of male infertility because of the many toxic chemicals contained in a cigarette.

"In the current study, we investigated the effect of smoking on the semen quality of infertile men, particularly in heavy and long term smokers. The results indicated that smoking significantly reduced the ejaculate volume: Every smoker should be encouraged to stop smoking, especially if a pregnancy is planned. Cigarette smoke contains a lot of known toxins, which may have detrimental effects on fertility. Simply stopping smoking could prevent the toxins contained in cigarette smoke."

Mehrannia T. (2007) "The effect of cigarette smoking on semen quality of infertile men"
Pakistani Journal of Medical Science
October - December 2007 (Part-I) Vol. 23 No. 5 717-719

The American Council on Science and Health is convinced that the health effects of smoking are among the reasons for infertility in men with this statement on their website.

"Scientists suspect that smoking may increase a man's risk of infertility because it causes several changes in the male reproductive system that may interfere with its normal functioning."

More Facts About Smoking and Causes of Male Infertility

Using standardized tests that measure how well sperm can penetrate the outer coating of a egg researchers at the University of Buffalo measured up to a 75% reduction in fertilization potential of sperm from male smokers. This result was most significant in heavy smokers.

Reduced semen quality has been recognized as one of the negative health effects of smoking cigarettes since about 1985 and the facts about smoking as one of the causes of male infertility keep accumulating.

Smoking Fiction About Your Manhood

The evidence seems clear that smoking does not make you more of a man. In fact the opposite is true.

If you factor in the effects of smoking cigarettes as one of the causes of impotence it becomes very clear that a limp penis and poor quality and quantity of sperm is not what men usually associate with their manhood.

It does not matter how rugged the men in the smoking advertisements are, that picture does not tell the whole story. The smoking facts tell the whole story!

And the whole story is that tobacco not only kills and disables millions of people but it kills and disables gazillions of sperm as well.

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