With the cost of infertility in the United States and the number of couples who has experienced it, the United States has launched a way in order to modify the factors associated with infertility which includes recreational drug and cannabis registers precisely under it.
Marijuana is one of the most widely used recreational drugs among individuals of reproductive age. Previous studies have examined the effects of marijuana use on reproductive hormones and semen quality, with conflicting results.
One thing is clear in fertility and marijuana, marijuana will not cause any damage while conceiving but if you are trying to conceive, it might not make it any easier.
In a Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (JECH), a web-based prospective cohort study of North American couples, the researchers surveyed 4,194 women aged 21 to 45 living in the United States or Canada. The study specifically targeted women in stable relationships who were not using contraception or fertility treatment. Female participants were given the option to invite their male partners to participate; 1,125 of their male partners enrolled.
The researchers found out that during the period from 2013 through 2017, approximately 12 percent of female participants and 14 percent of male participants reported marijuana use in the two months before completing the baseline survey. After 12 cycles of follow-up, conception probabilities were similar among couples that used marijuana and those that did not.
The researchers stressed that questions about the effects of marijuana use remain. As one example, they said, classifying people correctly according to the amount of marijuana used, especially when relying on self-reported data, is challenging. “Future studies with day-specific data on marijuana use might better be able to distinguish acute from chronic effects of marijuana use, and evaluate whether effects depend on other factors,” they wrote.
However, the result was based on self reported information which can be proven unreliable but it has been reported that cannabis or marijuana can have adverse effect to couples who are trying to conceive.
This has become a proven debate because while some researchers believe that smoking cannabis can affect the sperm and egg quality, others believe that it does not have any relation with each other.
In men who smoke cannabis up to 14 times in a week, there is a decline in the quality and volume of sperm produced which might cause infertility in the men. And for the women, too much cannabis affects the egg quality which enters the uterus and affects it.
How does cannabis affect infertility in men?
What causes this is the compounds associated with cannabinoids and also the THC but it is pertinent to add that THC damages the sperm when in contact with it thereby making it ineffective when it reaches the egg. The sperm becomes too hyperactive when released and gets ineffective before it reaches the thick coating of the egg and that is why most couples who take cannabis suffers from infertility. Regular usage of cannabis causes a great bad impact on the sperm count of men and its motility.
How does cannabis affect infertility in women?
In women, cannabis causes abnormalities in the women’s eggs thereby making it ineffective and causing a retarded development of the embryo. If pregnancy even occurs, this causes miscarriage to happen at the early stage and when egg is healthy, there might be trouble conceiving because of the presence of THC in the uterus and vagina.
What to do when you smoke cannabis and wants to conceive
The best way to handle this if you want to conceive is to stop consuming cannabis. Studies have revealed that when consuming of cannabis is reduced even for a week, it improves the egg and sperm quality thereby aiding in conception. Though the egg quality improves faster than the sperm as the sperm fully recovers once cannabis leaves the system completely.
So it is very necessary and important that the sperm and egg are always kept healthy especially when you plan to conceive as that will aid in immediate conception and a healthy child. Besides, most women who are infertile always suffers from depression and will always need a booster to their already awkward life.
