Smoking and fertility

Smoking in women is associated with

• Impaired fecundity⁴

• Increased risk of spontaneous abortion⁴

• Increased risk of ectopic prognancy⁴

• It may also advance the time of menopause by 1- 4 years⁴

Smoking in men has been shown to

• Be one of the major factors leading to male infertility⁵

• Decrease sperm count, motility and morphology which compromises sperm quality and fertility potential⁴

• Increase erectile dysfunction between 1 . 5 - 2 times³

For fertility treatments

• Smoking reduces the success of fertility treatments such as In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)⁶

• Women who smoke have 30% lower pregnancy rates compared with female IVF patients who do not smoke⁷

• Male partners who recently smoked had a significantly lower live birth rate with IVF or ICSI versus non-smoking males (7.8% vs 21.1% )⁶

Smoking is associated with other medical conditions that can affect fertility

Quitting smoking can improve the chances of conceiving

Quitting smoking can improve egg fertility, although the decrease of ovarian egg supply cannot be reversed⁷.

For women the reduced fecundity associated with smoking may be reversed within a year of smoking cessation⁴

For men smoking cessation may improve semen quality and reduce the number of patients with abnormal parameters, by improving semen volume, sperm concentration and total sperm count, at three months¹⁰.

You can play a vital role in helping your patients to stop smoking

HCPs are central to patients' success by:

• Advising and supporting patients to stop smoking.

• Counselling advice lasting less than 3 minutes can increase smoking cessation and abstinence rates by 40%¹¹

• Providing advice about which modifiable lifestyle factors affect fertility - such as smoking - is a crucial first step in helping people increase their chances of timely conception, and delivery of a healthy baby ¹²

• Couples are more likely to succeed in quitting smoking if they quit at the same time ¹⁴

• 85% of patients would appreciate their physician bringing up the topic of smoking cessation¹³

• Smoking in pregnancy and exposure to second hand smoke during pregnancy increases the risk of complications and stillbirth. Protecting mum and baby from tobacco smoke by quitting is one of the best things they can do to help give the child a healthy start in life.¹⁵

• Two -thirds of smokers say they want to quit , but most try to do so unaided, which is the least effective method¹⁶

• 3-5x increased chance of quitting with stop-smoking aids, like NRT and behavioural support^{17, 18}

Nicorette® NRT solution to support your patients to stop smoking^*1

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) has been specifically developed to aid patients to quit smoking

NRT provides the body with therapeutic doses of nicotine through a safer, alternative method to smoking and reduces the urge to smoke (cravings)²²

NRT dosing regimen provides a tapering down of pharmaceutical grade, lower dosage nicotine intake.^{18, 19} As the dose is tapered down, typically over a 12-week period²⁰, the brain downregulates the number of nicotine receptors which reduces cravings²¹ and increases the chances of successful, complete nicotine cessation²².

Nicorette® is clinically proven to reduce nicotine dependency, by helping to fight smoking cravings and withdrawal symptoms¹