Cigarette smoking as a cause of delay in conception

Abstract

Epidemiological studies relating cigarette smoking to the ability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy provide information on the clinical significance of smoking on reproductive health. Cigarette smoking by females has significantly increased in the decades after World War II, and now has an average initiation at ages 18–20 years. Maternal smoking is a hazard to the general health, the reproductive health and the life of both mother and child. Gestational smoking renders the fetus a passive smoker. This can result in fetal and neonatal death and in reduced fecundity of adult daughters.