James and his friends go out to their regular spot down the street to smoke a few joints. In an average week, James would smoke an average of eight (8) packs. This has been James’ routine for years. His wife has been complaining about his poor performance and how their sex life is just not as good as it was before. His friends would recommend various ‘agbo’ and bitters, but none of them seemed to be working for James.
After about three years of blaming his wife for their inability to have a second child, James finally agreed to go to the hospital, where the doctor told him that he had the infertility issue and not his wife. Of course, he didn’t believe it at first, but after a series of tests, he was finally convinced that his low sperm count had been the problem. Could his smoking have also contributed to his low sperm count?
Can Smoking Affect Men’s Sex Life?
Cigarette smoking (and lately vaping) causes a lot of consequences for almost every major organ in the body. It affects the eyes, lungs, and heart, and also increases the risk of cancers in almost any part of the body. Smoking causes what is called ‘oxidative stress,’ and this also increases the risks of complications, making it a very harmful activity with negative impacts both short-term (like heart attacks and strokes) and long-term (multiple cancers).
There is active smoking (where the person directly smokes the cigarette) and passive smoking (where the person inhales the smoke released by another smoker) and both can have negative impacts on the body, even on the reproductive system. When a man has an erection, the blood vessels in the penis expand and are filled with blood. In a man who smokes frequently, the blood vessels become narrow, making it difficult for blood to flow into his penis. As a result, this can increase the likelihood of erectile dysfunction. In many young men, smoking is one of the main causes of erectile dysfunction (You should read our blog post titled: Tackling Erection Problems).
Do you know that smoking even one (1) cigarette a day is bad for your health? Another study has shown that people who smoked more had an even higher risk of developing erectile dysfunction than people who smoked less. Since James smoked more than twenty (20) cigarettes a day, he had four times the risk of having erection problems than some of his friends who smoked about five (5) sticks a day.
Can Smoking Affect Men’s Sex Life? Apart from his erection problems, studies have also shown that smoking can cause men to have a reduced sperm count and/or poor sperm quality. This shows that male smokers like James may not only have problems with keeping or maintaining an erection but may also be faced with difficulty when trying to have a child.
Luckily, there is a simple solution. Stop smoking!
To do this successfully, start counting how many cigarettes you take per day and then aim to reduce it one cigarette at a time. Don’t stop all at once, or else you will have a relapse because cigarette smoking is addictive. By the time you have successfully stopped smoking, the damage to your body and to your reproductive health will not automatically disappear, but you will have begun the wonderful journey to recovery.
Know your fertility status; schedule a spermiogram appointment with Whispa Health today.
