No tobacco day: Smoking harms more than your lungs; It can damage your eggs as well
Long-term cigarette smoking has some obvious visible signs – coughing, yellowing teeth, discoloured fingernails, bad breath and others. In more severe cases, it leads to life-threatening diseases like lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart disease.
What remains less talked about is smoking's silent damage to fertility.
The harmful chemicals that poison the lungs and bloodstream travel through the body, leading to hormonal imbalance and disrupting normal reproductive functioning, putting fertility at risk. Even occasional smoking in the 20s and 30s, when reproductive health is typically at its peak, can compromise the quality of the egg and reduce the chances of conceiving naturally.
Research suggests that women who smoke are at 40–60% higher risk of infertility compared to those who don't.
Smoking affects more than the lungs
Nicotine, the main harmful substance in tobacco, directly interferes with how hormones work in the body. For women, the presence of excess nicotine in the body often means a drop in oestrogen levels. This eventually disrupts the ovulation cycle and compromises the egg quality and quantity.
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Smoking also accelerates the loss of eggs, affects the uterus' ability to support a pregnancy, and even makes fertility treatments like IVF less effective.
Tobacco use can cause a 20% drop in ovarian reserve, meaning fewer eggs and a higher chance that the remaining ones may not be healthy. It also increases the risk of irregular periods, early menopause, and premature ovarian insufficiency – a condition where the ovaries stop working before the age of 40.
How smoking affects pregnancy
Women who smoke are also more likely to face issues like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and implantation failure during fertility treatments. And the ill-effects of smoking on a woman's health don't stop there. Smoking increases the risk of hormone-related health problems like breast cancer, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes as well.
The most dangerous aspect is that even exposure to second-hand smoke can harm fertility by lowering egg quality and disrupting hormonal balance.
Your body wants to heal
Here's the part most people don't hear often: reproductive health can improve once you quit tobacco. Quitting smoking helps restore hormonal balance, enhance egg quality, and promote regular menstrual cycles. In some cases, these changes begin within just a few months. Over time, your body can reverse significant damage caused by tobacco.
This No Tobacco Day, think beyond the lungs
If you're planning a family or even just thinking about it for the future, quitting tobacco is one of the most powerful steps you can take today. Just like your lungs, your eggs too deserve a chance to breathe easy.
(Dr. Lipsa Mishra, Fertility Specialist, Birla Fertility & IVF, Bhubaneswar)
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