Preparing for pregnancy during the Spring Festival.
Do I need to quit smoking and drinking?
The Spring Festival is approaching, relatives and friends get together, it is inevitable to have a few drinks, tobacco and alcohol banquets, and the wine culture of the Chinese has a long history, and even there is a saying that there is no wine not into a banquet, but for men who are preparing for pregnancy, they are often worried that smoking and alcohol will have an impact on pregnancy, even if the wife is pregnant during this period, they are worried about whether it will affect the development of the fetus. So, during the Spring Festival, do men who are trying to get pregnant need to quit smoking and drinking?
What are the dangers of smoking to men?
Smoking is one of the factors that affect male reproductive health. Some studies have found that men who smoke not only have lower sperm quality than non-smokers, but also have significantly lower libido.
Smokers have a reduced sperm count and reduced motility, and its severity is related to the number of years smoking, and the longer the smoking age, the more serious the damage to the reproductive system. The reason for this is that nicotine in tobacco can inhibit the secretion of sex hormones and kill sperm; The harmful substances in tobacco can also damage the intima of the arteries and lead to erectile dysfunction.
In addition, smoking can also form local air pollution, causing wives and family members to breathe "second-hand smoke", which not only affects their fertility, but also affects the health of their families.
Especially for pregnant women, the first trimester of pregnancy is a critical period for embryonic cell differentiation, and long-term exposure to the "secondhand smoke" environment is very detrimental to the growth and development of the fetus.
What are the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption?
The effects of long-term alcohol consumption on male reproduction are also worth paying attention to, and there has been a lot of talk about the effects of alcohol on the body over the past few years. Some people believe that drinking alcohol in moderation is good for their health, while others think it's wiser to drink alcohol at all.
In terms of reproductive health, studies have shown that alcohol can cause atrophy, decreased serum testosterone levels, and reduced quality in men, thereby causing asthenozoospermia, sexual dysfunction and other diseases.
Scientific studies have further shown that excessive or long-term alcohol consumption can lead to an increase in the concentration of alcohol and its metabolite acetaldehyde in the blood, thereby inhibiting sperm production, increasing sperm malformation rate, inhibiting testosterone secretion, and affecting male reproductive function.
In summary, long-term heavy smoking and alcohol abuse will affect men's hormone levels, sperm production and sperm morphology, which will have a great negative impact on men's reproductive health, and have an obvious dose-response relationship.
Although occasional drinking and smoking may not necessarily affect fetal development, for the sake of their own health and the health of their offspring, it is recommended that couples trying to conceive try to avoid smoking, alcohol and other bad habits, and the sperm development cycle takes about three months.