Smoking and Infertility

Adapted from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Patient Fact Sheet

Research indicates that cigarette smoking is harmful to a women's ovaries and the degree of harm is dependent upon the amount and the period of time a woman smokes. Smoking pears to accelerate the loss of eggs and reproductive function and may advance the time of menopause by several years. Components in cigarette smoke have been shown to interfere with the ability of cells in the ovary to make estrogen and cause a woman's eggs to be more prone to genetic abnormalities. Smoking is strongly associated with an increased risk of spontaneous miscarriage and possibly ectopic pregnancy as well. Pregnant smokers are more likely to have low birth weight babies and premature birth. The incident of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) also increases in households where someone smokes.