When couples decide to start a family, they often begin to take steps toward a healthier lifestyle—eating better, exercising more, managing stress, and perhaps most importantly, quitting harmful habits. One of the most critical habits to break when trying to conceive is smoking.
Whether you’re a potential mom, dad, or even a passive smoker living in the household, smoking can have serious consequences for fertility, pregnancy outcomes, and the health of the baby. Here's why smoking and trying for a baby simply don’t mix.
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. Smoking accelerates the loss of eggs and damages the ones that remain. Toxins like nicotine, cadmium, and carbon monoxide can interfere with how the ovaries function, making it harder to get pregnant.
Smoking affects estrogen production, which is critical for ovulation and maintaining a healthy menstrual cycle. An irregular cycle can mean less frequent ovulation, reducing chances of conception.
Smoking affects the movement of eggs through the fallopian tubes, increasing the risk of ectopic pregnancy—a dangerous condition where the embryo implants outside the uterus.
Smoking lowers the number of sperm and reduces their ability to swim effectively. This makes it more difficult for sperm to reach and fertilize the egg.
Smoking can cause DNA fragmentation in sperm, which affects embryo development and increases the risk of miscarriage or birth defects.
Nicotine constricts blood vessels, including those that supply the penis. This can lead to reduced blood flow and sexual dysfunction, affecting a couple’s ability to conceive naturally.
If you’re not the one smoking, but you’re around it often, the risks don’t disappear. Secondhand smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals—hundreds of which are toxic and at least 70 are known to cause cancer.
Exposure to secondhand smoke has been linked to:
Even if conception happens, smoking during pregnancy can cause:
These risks are not theoretical—they are well-documented in countless medical studies. And they affect not just the pregnancy, but the long-term health of the baby.
Quitting smoking before you start trying increases your chances of conception and leads to healthier pregnancies. In fact, fertility can begin to improve within weeks of quitting.
If you’re already pregnant and still smoking, it’s never too late to quit. Stopping smoking, even partway through pregnancy, can improve outcomes and reduce risks.
Studies show that couples where both partners quit smoking have higher success rates in conceiving and carrying a healthy pregnancy to term.
Quitting smoking is hard—but you don’t have to do it alone. Here are some resources:
Talk to your doctor about a personalized quit plan, especially if you’re planning to get pregnant
