Side Effects Of Smoking On Male Health And Fertility: Here’s Why You Should Quit!

Do you know that every year about 8 million people die an untimely death due to smoking? This makes smoking one of the leading yet preventable causes of mortality worldwide.¹ While the habit visibly damages your lungs, it silently wreaks havoc on your entire body—not sparing even your reproductive system! So it’s important to be aware of the side effects of smoking and spread the word—so that we cut off the habit before it cuts short our lives (and that of our loved ones).

In this blog, we’ll explain how smoking takes over your body, damaging vital organs and causing fertility problems. So let’s get started.

What Happens To Your Body

Smoking is injurious to health! According to the CDC, the smoke from cigarettes contains more than 7000 chemical components. And out of these, hundreds are dangerous to human health.²

The moment you take a whiff, the smoke from the cigarettes starts to irritate your nasal and oral cavity. Within 20 minutes, the nicotine from the cigarette enters your bloodstream, giving you the ‘feel good’ experience. 

It takes about 48 hours for the nicotine and other chemicals to finally exit your system, assuming you don’t smoke another cigarette.³ Regular smokers expose themselves to these and many other side effects of smoking which we will get to in a bit. Let’s start with addiction first. 

How You Become Addicted

When you smoke a cigarette, its major component nicotine gets released into your bloodstream. Nicotine is a stimulant that causes your body to release dopamine—a chemical that makes you feel good. But as soon as the effects of dopamine start to fade off, your body begins craving more and more, which can be fulfilled via smoking. So when you don’t, you start to experience withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, sorrow and difficulty in sleeping. This is the whole cycle that explains how your body becomes addicted to smoking.⁴

How Tobacco Damages Your Body

The tobacco in cigarettes is the major culprit behind these smoking side effects. It can harm multiple organs and increase your risk of developing various health complications, such as:

1. Cancer

Smoking can significantly increase your risk of developing cancer. The possible mechanisms include:⁵

• Weakening the immune system and reducing its capacity to destroy cancer cells.
• Causing DNA damage leading to uncontrolled growth of cells (cancer).

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and lung cancer-related deaths. And it also increases the risk of almost all other types of cancer across your body including (but not limited to) blood, kidney, pelvis, liver, stomach, mouth, etc.⁵

Moreover, cancer treatments can also cause loss of fertility in men. While chemotherapy can damage sperm cells, surgery performed to treat certain cancers (such as those of the pelvic region) can damage vital reproductive organs. Men undergoing cancer treatments are often advised to preserve their fertility before starting therapy.⁶ This gives them a viable option to have biological children in future after the treatment is complete.

2. Respiratory Problems

Smoking increases the risk of several lung diseases such as:

• Chronic Bronchitis: The large airways leading to the lungs are called bronchi. Smoking can cause long-term inflammation of these bronchi which causes shortness of breath and persistent coughing up mucus (for months).⁷
• Emphysema: Emphysema is a type of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) that affects the air sacs in your lungs. It results in shortness of breath, coughing, and extreme fatigue. It can also cause sleep and heart problems, weight loss, and depression.⁷
• Cancers Of Respiratory Organs: Smoking can cause cancers of the lungs, nose, sinuses, voice box, and throat—organs essential for supporting normal breathing.⁷

3. Heart Disease, Stroke & Blood Circulation Problems

Smoking tops the chart as the leading risk factor for heart disease. Smoking causes an immediate and long-term rise in blood pressure and heart rate. It also causes reduced blood flow from the heart to the brain and other parts, reduced oxygen supply, and increased risk of blood clots. All these factors also increase the risk of stroke.⁸

4. Type 2 Diabetes

People who smoke have a 40% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a long-lasting health condition that affects your body’s capacity to metabolise sugar. If people who have diabetes continue to smoke, they can get more serious complications such as heart disease, kidney disease, infections, ulcers, retinopathy (eye disease that can cause vision loss), peripheral neuropathy (damaged nerves), etc.⁹

Type 2 diabetes is also closely linked to male infertility causing erectile and ejaculatory dysfunctions as well as hypogonadism (decreased production of male sex hormones).¹⁰

5. Dental Problems

Smoking can have a direct negative impact on your oral and dental health. It can stain your teeth and cause tooth decay, tooth loss, poor recovery after tooth extraction, gum disease and much more.¹¹

6. Hearing Loss

Your ears could be another organ that smoking affects. Smoking has a direct relationship with hearing loss and an indirect association with other auditory problems such as tinnitus, in which you hear sounds like ringing in your ears even though there isn’t any sound source.¹²

7. Fertility Problems

Smoking can negatively impact male fertility by lowering sperm concentration, impairing movement, and damaging its shape. It also adversely affects sperm vitality, amount of ejaculate, & progressive motility. The possible mechanism behind this is the build-up of oxidative stress, hormonal imbalance and DNA damage.¹³

So if you are a smoker, you must get your semen sample checked for potential fertility issues, especially if you’re planning to have a baby. And if you’re awkward about getting it done from a clinic, you can consider LifeCell’s SpermScore—an at-home, self-sample collection test that comprehensively checks your semen sample for 10 sperm health parameters and 14 conditions, in compliance with WHO standards. 

Conclusion

Smoking is probably the worst thing that you can do to your body. It damages your vital organs, deteriorates your quality of life and even causes fertility problems. So the best choice you’re left with right now is to quit. And you’ll start to feel the difference almost immediately. 

Additionally, go for a routine health checkup to assess your current health status and start working towards a better you. Also, don’t forget to undergo a comprehensive semen analysis to ensure that your reproductive health too, is on point. 

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FAQs

Q1. Does Smoking Affect Sperm Health?

Yes. Smoking lowers sperm concentration, impairs its movement and damages its shape.¹³

Q2. My Husband Is A Smoker. Will It Affect My Pregnancy?

If you are expecting a kid and your spouse smokes, he is probably exposing your unborn child to secondhand smoke, which is much more dangerous than the mother smoking herself. ¹⁷

Q3. Can Smoking Cause Male Infertility?

Yes, smoking can be linked with male infertility. Toxins and chemicals found in cigarettes negatively affect male health, exposing them to high levels of cadmium and lead that are responsible for decreasing fertility in men. ¹⁸

Q4. Is Smoking Linked With Erectile Dysfunction (ED)?

Yes, some studies suggest that smoking can increase the risk of erectile dysfunction. The more the man smokes, the more he suffers from ED. ¹⁹

Q5. How Many Cigarettes A Day Are Safe?

Studies reveal that, on average, a person who smokes one cigarette every day throughout their lifetime has a 64% increased risk of dying early. ²⁰

Q6. How Can I Check My Sperm Count At Home?

The most convenient, and confidential way to test the quality of your sperm is by using LifeCell’s SpermScore Kit. This semen analysis test kit examines 10 sperm health parameters and 14 sperm health conditions from the comfort of your home.  

Q7. Why Do People Smoke?

Smoking gives people a feeling of relaxation and the nicotine in cigarettes creates a dependency, drawing people to smoke more often, eventually leading to addiction.⁴

Q8. What Are The Side Effects Of Smoking?

Smoking increases your risk of developing multiple health complications such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hearing loss, dental problems, fertility issues and so much more.^{5 7 8 9 11 12 13}