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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Cigarette Smoke Exposure in Mice using a Whole-Body Inhalation System
Published on: October 22, 2020
Cigarette smoking is related to a decrease in semen volume in a population of fertile men
Fábio F Pasqualotto1, Bernardo P Sobreiro, Jorge Hallak
1Divisão de Clínica Urológica, Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. pasquaf@hotmail.com
Objective:
To evaluate the semen quality and hormonal levels in fertile men according to their level of cigarette smoking.
Subjects And Methods:
We evaluated 889 fertile men who came for a vasectomy for sterilization purposes. The men included 522 non-smokers, 143 mild smokers (<10 cigarettes/day), 154 moderate smokers (11-20/day), and 70 heavy smokers (>20/day). We evaluated sperm concentration, motility, motion variables and hormonal levels in these men.
Results:
There were no significant differences among the groups in sperm concentration or motility, or in levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, or serum total testosterone. Also, sperm motion characteristics did not differ across the groups. Semen volume was the only semen variable which tended to decrease according to the number of cigarettes smoked.
Conclusions:
Cigarette smoking had no apparent effect on sperm concentration, motility or reproductive hormonal levels, but tended to reduce semen volume.
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