How long before the planned conception should a man quit smoking?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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As part of a recent study, a group of British scientists, finally managed to establish the direct harm that men's smoking causes to the health of future offspring. With the help of special modeling, physicians could clearly demonstrate that smoking men before conception of a child leads to an increase in the predisposition of children to a number of diseases, including cancer.
Thus, researchers state that when planning a child, smoking men should also give up their bad habits, like women.
However, after the discovery, the researchers posed the question - for how long before the planned conception, a man should quit smoking in order to minimize the risk to his future child's health. In women, this term currently ranges from 2 to 3 years, with some physicians reckoning, and even periods of such duration, inadequate. However, smoking men for so long to wait, obviously, do not have to. The maturation of spermatozoa in their bodies can be as long as 3 months. That's the amount of time that must pass between the last puff of a cigarette and the conception of a child.
"Smoking triggers mutagenic processes in the human sex cells. At the conception of the child, his mother and father lay the foundations of DNA - a kind of foundation for the health of their unborn child. Male smoking, perhaps only slightly less than a woman's, can lead to cracks in this foundation, which will subsequently affect the entire structure in the most disastrous way, "notes Dr. Gerald Weissmann, one of the authors of the study and a professor from the school Natural Sciences at the University of Bradford.
"Three months is only a minimum period, and no one will guarantee that a person who has been smoking before this for several years, this harmful habit will not subsequently affect the health of his child. The degree of risk here is extremely difficult to assess, so men should think about their health and their children's health and not become addicted to this harmful habit. If a man smokes, then personally my advice for him is to quit smoking, at least six months before the alleged conception of the child, and also to pass the semen for analysis two times - on the first day of giving up cigarettes and a week before conception, to evaluate the activity of spermatozoa and their concentration. These factors are indicative, and if they have recovered in six months, this is a very good sign, "he adds.
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