Cigarette substitutes can also inhibit sperm quality
MEN who give up smoking in an effort to get their partners pregnant should beware of popular products used, as anything containing nicotine will have a significantly negative impact on sperm quality.
New research published yesterday by the University of Stellenbosch showed that popular aids used to assist smokers in giving up impeded the sperm’s vitality and mobility.
“The study showed that nicotine has adverse effects on human sperm that could harm a man’s ability to get a woman pregnant,” lead researcher Dr Peter Oyeyipo, from the Division of Medical Physiology at the university’s faculty of medicine and health sciences said ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Sunday .
“People forget that cigarettes are not the only nicotine-containing products – patches and gum used for nicotine replacement also contain the substance. Future dads should give all nicotine products a miss.”
They should also steer clear of other nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing patches or gum, to increase their partner’s likelihood of conceiving.
This laboratory study was recently published in the scientific journal Andrologia and found that nicotine negatively affected the sperm cell’s ability to swim, the amount of live cells and the sperm’s ability to join with the female egg. “When men are exposed to nicotine it shows up in their seminal fluid, where sperm cells come in contact with it,” Oyeyipo said.
The study investigated the effect of nicotine exposure on the sperm cells of 12 healthy males. “Low nicotine concentrations, equal to the amount of incidental exposure a passive smoker would experience in his day-to-day life, had little or no effect on sperm cells. But as the level of exposure increased, so did the negative impact.”
But all is not lost for smokers. Oyeyipo said earlier research showed a man’s sperm cell production could return to normal after he quit smoking, or other forms of nicotine use.