Smoking and Impotence
How smoking can affect sexual health
Most people now know tobacco contributes to serious lung disease, heart disease and some cancers - but they may not realise it can also affect their sexual and reproductive health as well.
Doctors specialising in male impotence now say that smoking is one of the reasons why many men become impotent when they are middle aged and older. To understand how this happens, you need to know that a man's erection depends on a healthy blood supply to the penis. The trouble with smoking, however, is that it can damage the arteries carrying this blood. This can make it difficult for a man to have an erection. This problem is made worse by high blood pressure and a diet high in fatty foods - both factors which can damage these important arteries. According to Dr Chris McMahon of the Australian Society for Impotence Medicine, a male smoker with high blood pressure is seven times more likely to be impotent than other men.
Although impotence related to smoking is more common in middle-aged and elderly men, it can also affect men in their 30s who have smoked for a long time..
'If men changed their habits, there'd be less impotence. It's often possible for men to reverse the damage if they quit smoking, eat less fat and get more exercise,' he says, adding that men who have erection problems should see their GP.
If that's not enough to encourage men to quit smoking, there's also evidence that tobacco can damage the quality of male sperm and decrease a man's fertility.
NSW Deptartment of Health
http://www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/health-public-affairs/mhcs/publications/3090.html