Abstract :
Infertility is defined as the inability of a sexually active, non-contracepting couple to achieve pregnancy in one year. In a developing country, like ours, where most societies are organized, the inability to bear children is a tragedy for the families and the conflux of personal, social and religious expectations brings a sense of failure, exclusion and loss who are infertile. So it becomes important to know about various risk factors associated with infertility, as awareness of male infertility is low in India.
Aim: To study sperm characteristics in tobacco users and non users undergoing infertility evaluation in a tertiary care hospital.
Settings and Design: It was a cross sectional study, done for one and a half years from January 2016-December 2017 in a tertiary hospital.
Methods and Material: After taking consent and detailed history, semen analysis according to WHO guidelines were done. Male patients who came for semen analysis for evaluation of their infertility were included. Amongst these semen parameters of tobacco users were compared with nonusers.
Statistical analysis used: The data was analyzed using SPSS-22
Results: We observed 102 cases for semen analysis, amongst them 46% samples were tobacco users and 54% samples were non-tobacco users. An increase in grade of tobacco usage was associated with a decrease in normal sperm parameters.
Conclusions: Fertility counsellors, clinicians need to be more focused to control male infertility by spreading the awareness of this addiction to enhance fertility potential.
Key Messages: We advice men to stop tobacco usage to improve fertility and their quality of life.
Keyword :
Infertile men, Semen, Smoking, Tobacco Chewing.