Reduced fertility is often determined by factors over which you have no control, such as a disease or an illness that you were born with. However, it is important for you and your partner to also be aware that you can influence some of the factors that impact on fertility.

For example, smoking can cause abnormalities in menstruation in women, and high alcohol consumption can influence sperm production in men. The combination of several risk factors together can further reduce fertility. While overcoming a fertility problem is seldom as simple as drinking less or stopping smoking, changing certain elements of your lifestyle can nonetheless improve your chances of a pregnancy.

In this section, smoking, alcohol and drugs, all of which can make it more difficult to have a child, along with other important lifestyle factors are reviewed.

A recent English study investigated the effect of various factors on the fertility of 2112 pregnant women. Both men and women were asked about their age, smoking and alcohol consumption. The survey also collected information on tea and coffee consumption, weight, standard of living, drug use and the frequency of sexual relations.

The results showed that lifestyle has a significant effect on fertility. The influence of smoking, alcohol and tea/coffee consumption seemed to depend on the level of intake.

Besides the individual effect of these various factors on fertility, it was also demonstrated that fertility decreases further if several risk factors were present simultaneously.