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(text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
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Ask the Experts
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How does smoking affect a woman's fertility?
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Dr. Kimberly Thompson, South Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine: Smoking seems to diminish
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the egg supply that a woman has. Women who smoke tend to go into an earlier menopause.
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So, by not smoking or quitting as soon as possible, the woman improves the chances that she will have more eggs,
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lasting for longer, so that she's able to have her family when she wishes to.
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How much a woman smokes does seem to affect the age at which she goes into menopause.
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Someone who is smoking a half pack a day or full pack per day for many years is more prone to having an earlier menopause.
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There are other factors also. There is a genetic component to the age of menopause, so a woman who might otherwise have been
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destined for menopause at a more average age of approximately 51 might move her menopause up a few years to 47 or 48.
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But if she was a woman who was, perhaps, genetically more prone to a menopause at 44, and she smokes,
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then she could be moving into very early '40s, and depending on her life situation and social circumstances,
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when she's ready to pursue having a family, it could make her life more difficult conceiving then.
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(text on screen): Fertility Authority. Your Most Trusted Source
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