The Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Seminal Fluid

When considering health risks involved with cigarette smoke, most often lung and heart disease come to mind. However, cigarettes affect numerous other parts of the body, including the seminal fluid a man produces.

Identification

• In a 2007 study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Canadian scientists found that cigarette smoke alters the DNA contained in sperm.

Significance

• These genetic changes are then potentially passed onto the genetic material of any children produced by the smoker.

Features

• On a test that studied mice, researchers found that the longer the mice had been exposed to cigarette smoke, the more severe the genetic damage or mutations found in the mouse's seminal fluid.

Types

• According to the American Association for Cancer Research, while the fact that the DNA is being damaged by cigarette smoke is known, researchers are still exploring the extent and severity of the damage.

Considerations

• According to a study conducted by the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences and published in the Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology, cigarette smoke also slows down the motility of sperm and cuts down its fertility.