He’s in his early 30s, juggling career goals, late-night stress, and the occasional cigarette. He’s healthy, fit, and now thinking about starting a family. But he didn’t realise that the habit he saw as harmless, maybe even relaxing, was quietly working against his fertility.
Dr. Shraddha Tripathi Bichpuria, Fertility Specialist at Birla Fertility & IVF, Siliguri, explains that Tobacco use doesn’t just stain teeth or damage lungs – it directly affects the cells responsible for creating life.
Fewer sperm, fewer chances
A PMC study showed that men who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day experience a 19% reduction in sperm concentration. Even those who smoke fewer than 10 a day are at risk, with 23% lower sperm count against non-smokers. But sperm count is only the beginning.
Sperm motility – how well they swim – is also significantly impaired by tobacco use. And structure matters too: smoking increases the percentage of abnormally shaped sperm, reducing their ability to fertilise an egg. So even if the numbers look ‘normal,’ their function might not be.
Then there’s the DNA. Tobacco smoke creates oxidative stress, damaging the genetic material inside sperm. Another PMC study revealed higher DNA fragmentation in smokers, a marker associated with reduced IVF success, poor embryo quality, and even longer-term hazards to the child’s health.
Tobacco smoking interferes with reproductive hormone equilibrium, altering testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), all important for sperm production and development. Smoking constricts blood vessels and thereby impairs circulation, enhancing the potential for erectile dysfunction, which ultimately diminishes the capacity to conceive. Smoking also diminishes seminal zinc, an essential nutrient for sperm stability and activity.
And the damage doesn’t end with the smoker. Boys exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb due to maternal smoking have been shown to have 20–48% lower sperm density as adults. That’s the reach of tobacco: across generations.
But there’s good news, too.
Sperm regenerate every 74 days. Quitting smoking can lead to significant improvements in sperm quality, motility, and DNA integrity – sometimes in as little as three months.
When you’re trying to conceive, every choice counts. And when it comes to sperm health, every bit of tobacco usage does too.
