Smoking damages men's sperm and also the numbers of germ and somatic cells in developing embryos
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - 21:21
in Health & Medicine
Two new studies have shed more light on how smoking may damage fertility, and give further weight to advice that mothers and fathers-to-be should stop smoking before attempting to conceive. The first shows that a mother's smoking reduces the numbers of germ and somatic cells in the testes of developing embryos; the second study shows that men's smoking affects the levels of two proteins, protamines, that are crucial for the correct formation of their sperm.