Smoking and Impotence

Impotence is the inability for men to achieve or sustain an erection long enough to complete satisfactory sexual intercourse. It can be linked directly to the effects of smoking and even passive smoking. According to research, smoking increases the risk of impotence in men in their 30ies and 40ies by up to 50%. Additional research has also linked smoking and its effects to other erectile dysfunction problems, such as a reduction in the volume of semen, a reduced in the amount of sperm, lowered fertility and also a reduction in the response to fertility treatments.

Why do the effects of smoking cause impotence?

Cigarettes contain up to 4000 harmful chemicals, which are transferred directly into your body through smoking. These chemicals and toxins have a massive negative effect on the body, its processes and your health, and can be directly linked to being a massive cause of impotence in men, among other fertility and sexual problems.

Smoke inhalation has an immediate effect on the vascular systems of the body - the blood system. The actual smoke particles clog up arteries and veins. The poisonous chemicals inhaled all play different roles in damaging the vascular system and nicotine even affects the muscles in the walls of the veins and arteries, thus affecting the flow of blood through the body. All of these factors play a role in the negative effect smoking has on erectile functioning.

What can smoking do to penile functioning?

In general, penile blood pressure is low in smokers, which is generally due to atherosclerosis. This occurs when fatty deposits along the walls of the arteries decrease the flow of blood through that artery. With a decrease in the flow of blood through the arteries in the body, not enough blood is able to travel into the penis to create an erection, leading to impotence.

Nicotine also has been directly related to the onset on impotence in men. When nicotine stimulates particular hormones in the brain, it also causes penile tissues to rapidly contract. When they contract, the blood flow through the arteries is restricted, which means that blood cannot flow into the penis. This is called acute vasospasm.

Nicotine inhaled through smoking has another effect on the penis, which is called venous dilatation. Basically the nicotine has a direct effect on the valve system that regulates the flow of blood out of the penis after an erection. Because the valve does not work correctly, what often happens is that blood flows out of the penis faster than it should, which results in brief erections.

Both acute vasospasm and venous dilatation are direct results of the effect of nicotine, which means that if you give up smoking, they will dissipate quickly.