Fertility Damaged by Smoking

Scientists say that smoking may not just harm your fertility but also that of the next generation.
Men who smoke have a lower concentration of proteins in the testes that are essential for producing sperm, while women who smoke during pregnancy may be sowing the seeds of infertility in their unborn child, as two separate studies.

In one of the studies, researchers obtained 24 testes, from 37 to 68 day embryos after legally terminated pregnancies. 
They found that the number of germ cells - responsible for forming eggs and sperm - was reduced by 55 per cent in fetuses from women who'd been smoking while pregnant. They also found a 37 per cent reduction in the ordinary or somatic cells in the embryos. 
"We were very surprised that smoking so early in pregnancy has such profound effect on the number of germ cells in the gonads," New Scientist quoted co-author Claus Andersen from the University Hospital of Copenhagen in Denmark, as saying. 
Results from a previous study on female fetuses showed a slightly lower corresponding reduction of germ and somatic cells - of 41 and 29 per cent respectively. 
The researchers believe the reason the male embryos they studied showed higher sensitivity was because they were, on average, exposed to more cigarettes per day.