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Gynecology  Infertility
 
 

Living with a smoker
halves chances
of IVF pregnancy


By Sam Lister, Health Correspondent
 


Passive smoking is as damaging to a woman’s chances of having successful fertility treatment as being a smoker, according to research. A Canadian study suggests that women having IVF treatment reduce their chances of becoming pregnant by half if they live with a smoker who has ten cigarettes a day.

 
   

May 26, 2005

Exposure to smoke has long been held as a factor thought to affect a woman’s ability to become pregnant. The Canadian study now indicates, however, that sidestream smoke given off by a smouldering cigarette is just as damaging. The research team, from McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, studied 225 women having fertility treatment.

The team compared the quality of embryos and the implantation and pregnancy rates of non-smokers, smokers or sidestream smokers — defined as women living with a partner who smoked regularly. The findings, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found that there was no difference in embryo quality between the three groups. But they found that there was a striking difference in implantation and pregnancy rates between non-smokers and the other two groups. It is estimated that one in seven couples in Britain has difficulty conceiving — about 3.5 million people. Around 1 per cent of all births are the result of IVF and donor insemination. More than 8,500 babies were born through IVF last year, with close to 30,000 patients having treatment.

Michael Neal, a member of the McMaster team, said that the damaging effects of passive smoking were so clear that they were now warning all patients about the potential hazards to fertility. “We found that embryo quality and fertilisation rates were similar in the three groups, but there was a significant difference in the pregnancy rates per embryo transfer, with the non-smokers achieving around 48 per cent, the smokers around 19 per cent and the sidestream smokers 20 per cent,” he said. Success rates for women having IVF treatment in Britain drop dramatically between the age of 35 and 40, with 27.6 per cent of patients becoming pregnant under 35 and just 10 per cent between the ages of 40 and 42.

Warren Foster, a senior researcher, said that a further study was needed to confirm their results: “The findings from our study already warrant a warning to women to reduce or, if possible, prevent exposure to cigarette smoking, especially if they are trying to conceive.”

The researchers now want to look at why there is no difference in the appearance and development of embryos before they are implanted in the three groups, but a large decrease in the ability of embryos from sidestream smokers and smokers to implant or maintain a pregnancy. Mr Neal said that it was possible that cigarette smoke damaged the egg, but the lethal results were not apparent until later in the embryo’s development.

He added: “Our study is unique in looking at the female, who is just as vulnerable, if not more vulnerable, to environmental toxicants such as cigarette smoke.”

© 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
 
 
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