Smoking pot can burn out your sperm count and harm your fertility if you’re not careful; especially if you’re thinking about starting a family.
As a recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that smoking weed more than once a week has the ability to lower sperm count by a third.
The effects that ‘Mary Jane’ has on fertility have become an interesting topic for researchers due to its increasing attraction amongst young males.
Although men who indulge in weed do get women pregnant; as some men are more fertile than others, depending on the different stages of their life.
‘However, men who are considered to be borderline-infertile may risk infertility with smoking pot’.
An interesting factor that can also play a role in the harming of fertility, which was discovered in a 2003 study done by the University of Buffalo, stated that even if women are the weed smokers, this can alter a man’s sperm.
How?
“When women smoke marijuana, nicotine, or other drugs, their reproductive fluids, or vaginal secretions will contain these drugs. For example, in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the drug’s psychoactive ingredient — is found in the vagina, the oviduct, and the uterus when a woman smokes.
Even if a man hasn’t smoked but the woman has, his sperm will enter her body and reach the THC in her system, which is what causes the THC to alter his sperm.”
How does THC interact with sperm when you light that spliff?
Lead author of the study, Tina Kold Jensen of the University of Copenhagen, looked at over 1, 200 Danish men between the ages of 18 to 28 who were recruited between 2008- 2012, who had to undergo a compulsory medical exam to determine their fitness level.
They were then asked whether they used weed within the past three months and if they had, how often. These men had to provide semen and blood samples, along with the physical examination.
Those who admitted to taking drugs were asked how often on a spectrum from no use to smoking more than once a week. Researchers then collected semen samples to measure their sperm counts and concentrations.
The results they found were staggering as those who admitted to smoking weed regularly had a sperm count that was 29 percent lower than those who had reported lighter use or who did not smoke at all.
Those who admitted to using other recreational drugs alongside marijuana had their sperm counts reduced by 55 percent as well as their sperm concentrations lowered by 52 percent.
The same goes for cigarette smokers as those who smoke weed were found to have higher levels of testosterone similar to cigarette smokers , as a ‘2010 study published in the journal Human Reproduction found cigarettes damage sperm.’
Although researchers have uncovered a link between marijuana and sperm, they are still unclear as to why the drug damages a man’s sperm count.
So if you want to be a dad someday, think wisely before you “put the weed in the coconut, and light that sh** up”, men.
Sources: Medical Daily, American Journal of Epidemiology, Human Reproduction,
Alice Paulse
