PREVENTING MISCARRIAGES: SMOKING AND ALCOHOL

Smoking

A study published in the British Journal of Cancer showed that men, who smoke, while their partner doesn’t, run the risk of fathering children who develop cancers such as leukemia and brain tumours. The theory is that chemicals in tobacco smoke can damage the DNA in the sperm. Taking this one step further, it’s easy to see that any changes in DNA in the sperm could lead to a possible increase in miscarriage rate. DNA damage cannot be picked up in a normal semen analysis so this problem would not be seen during routine fertility investigations.

Quite apart from the possible increase in abnormalities in babies of women who smoke during pregnancy, there is also an increased risk of miscarriages.

Another study, by Professor Jane Golding of the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol, highlighted how our own actions can affect the next generation. Jane Golding looked at daughters who didn’t smoke but whose mothers had smoked. The daughters subsequently suffered a significantly increased risk of miscarriages.

Alcohol

It is universally acknowledged that alcohol can alter a man’s sperm count and cause an increase in abnormal sperm. Therefore, it follows that if an abnormal sperm fertilises an egg, nature will try to ‘get rid’ of that embryo because it is working on ‘survival of the fittest’.

Alcohol is a substance that is known to cause mutations. For example, studies have shown that alcohol given to female mice immediately after mating caused severe damage to the chromosomes of one-fifth to one-sixth of the embryos. This resulted in a higher percentage of miscarriages or death shortly after birth. Chromosomal damage is a recognized cause of miscarriage.

Research has also shown a strong relationship between alcohol and miscarriages. A 1977 study found that women who have a drink every day have a risk of miscarriage 2.5 times higher than non-drinkers. In this same study they found that if the woman was a drinker and a smoker her risk of having a miscarriage increased by up to four times.

The conclusion, from a number of the studies on women, is that even moderate alcohol consumption works as a reproductive toxin and as such increases the risk of a miscarriage.

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