The Effects of Smoking on Libido Levels

Many studies have shown that smoking has a huge impact on the lungs, digestive system, blood health, and fertility. Research has also shown its link to arthritis and its dangers as you go over 40 years old.

But one thing that doesn’t get talked about is the effects of smoking on libido levels – our overall sexual health.

It’s known that the 7,000 chemicals and 69 carcinogens found in cigarette smoke are devastating to human health, but these also affect your bedroom performance. Tobacco is probably to blame if you don’t feel ‘in the moment’ recently.

In today’s post, we’ll look at how cigarette consumption can have a detrimental effect on your sex drive.

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Vascular Health

You might have heard that smoking can lower your sex drive or harm your sexual performance. It’s easy to dismiss these warnings as myths meant to scare you into quitting. 

But the truth is, smoking can seriously affect your sexual health.

If you’ve been smoking for a long time, your heart and blood vessels may be at risk. Studies show that smoking can cause plaque to build up in your arteries, narrowing them and reducing blood flow. 

This can lead to poorer drive in the bedroom for both men and women. In men, it often leads to erectile dysfunction, making it difficult to achieve or maintain an erection during sex.

While this might sound alarming, you can still improve your cardiovascular health and show more love to your partner by choosing to quit smoking.

Hormonal Imbalance

Another crucial factor in your sexual experience and performance is your hormones, which can also be disrupted by long-term smoking. 

Your endocrine system regulates your hormone levels, but it weakens with age and can be further compromised by excessive nicotine. As a result, your body may produce lower levels of testosterone and estrogen.

Testosterone is essential for muscle development and sex drive in men. Research shows that testosterone levels decrease much faster in men who smoke regularly, which affects their libido and overall performance.

Women who smoke also experience negative effects on their hormones. Smoking can quickly lower estrogen levels, leading to an unexpectedly early menopause. 

To maintain healthy hormone levels and support your sexual health and satisfaction, it’s best to start managing your smoking habits and work towards quitting for good.

Psychological Factors

Experts say that continuous smoking can lead to psychological issues like depression, anxiety, and chronic stress. The high intake of nicotine from this habit can disrupt your mental health, harm your hormone balance, and lower your libido.

If you’re a regular or chain smoker, you’ve likely experienced uncontrollable cravings and mood swings, especially if you haven’t smoked for a few hours or are in the early stages of quitting. 

During withdrawal, you might feel so distracted that your sex drive suffers. This happens because smoking can deeply alter your habits due to the strong dependence built over time. 

Even if you’ve quit for months or even years, you may still struggle with withdrawal symptoms without proper support.

Breaking a long-term, addictive habit like smoking can be challenging and can affect your mindset, lifestyle, and relationships. However, with perseverance, focus, and a solid support system, you can overcome your nicotine dependence. 

Whenever you’re on the verge of giving up, remember that quitting smoking can significantly enhance your quality of life. This includes your hormone balance, vascular health, fertility, and sexual performance.

Fertility and Reproductive Health

It’s no surprise that the dangerous chemicals you inhale in cigarettes will affect your overall fertility and reproductive health. 

It’s possible that you might not experience any physiological or psychological problems while consuming cigarettes, but your reproductive health is most likely in jeopardy.

Smoking has been linked to decreased and malformed sperm, affecting its motility and capability to fertilise an egg. On the other hand, women may experience hormonal imbalances, menstrual irregularities, and loss of ovum, the egg the sperm fertilises. 

In fact, there’s a huge chance that the surviving eggs of a woman who smokes are malformed and poorly performing, too.

If you’ve been trying to conceive for quite some time and haven’t stopped smoking, you now have a solid reason to stop smoking for good and improve your overall health.

Quitting Smoking and Sexual Health

Even if you’ve been smoking for a long time, it’s never too late to quit – especially if you want that satisfaction and sexual drive you once had.

The absence of cigarette smoke’s dangerous chemicals and nicotine in your body has been shown to improve a male’s sex drive and overall physical performance (including reducing erectile dysfunction symptoms). 

Testosterone levels can also recover significantly, more so if the motivated smoker also improves their diet and takes upon physical activity. Sperm counts and quality also improve after quitting.

In women, quitting smoking has been shown to improve egg cell quality and overall health. While women might not recover the eggs they’ve lost due to smoking, they can still conceive as their eggs improve later on.

Aside from improvements in reproductive health, male and female genitalia become much more sensitive and feel better after quitting smoking as blood flow improves and sexual drive increases.

How Does Vaping Help Quit Smoking to Restore Sex Drive?

Nicotine vaping products (NVPs) can be a great tool to help you quit smoking and boost your sex drive. The only responsible and trusted option available in the country is NVPs that are sold in physical pharmacies under a GP’s prescription. 

NVP products sold in pharmacies are made under stringent pharmaceutical standards on the manufacturing process and ingredients, are toxicologically assessed for inhalation, are locally insured, and are specifically designed to help you stop smoking.

This means you’re using a product intended to help you stop smoking as safely and effectively as possible.

How Can I Get Pharmacy Vaping Products?

Here are the steps to go through a smoking cessation programme and use NVPs for quitting smoking.

Go Through First-Line Solutions First

NVPs aren’t issued immediately in smoking cessation programmes – you’ll have to go through nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) first. NRT programmes use lozenges, gums, inhalers, and patches that contain a small dose of nicotine to wean off your strong withdrawal symptoms during the first few weeks.

While they can work for some smokers, many have ingrained habits that only a pharmacy NVP can address effectively. In fact, the latest Cochrane Review found high-certainty evidence that NVPs are more effective than NRT in helping people stop smoking.

Chat to a GP

If you find NRT isn’t working well for you, go through a smoking cessation programme. A GP can create a tailor-made one just for you with the right NRT dosages using your previous cigarette consumption level as a benchmark.

GPs can also assess and give you an NVP prescription if NRT products aren’t working and you need a pharmacy NVP to quit.

Visit Your Local Pharmacy

Once you receive your prescription, you can head to your local pharmacy to purchase an NVP. Over 2,200 pharmacies nationwide hold stock of responsible NVPs, but any pharmacy can quickly order these in for you.

Your pharmacist and GP will instruct you on how best to use your pharmacy NVP for smoking cessation.

Summary

Smoking and libido levels have a detrimental relationship that can compromise the satisfaction and bond you have with your partner. 

By quitting smoking and with the help of a smoking cessation programme and pharmacy vaping products, you can improve your sex drive and find more pleasure once again as your body.

We know you’re reading this because you’re wondering whether smoking has an effect on your sex drive. Aside from the helpful stuff you read here, we can help you go one step further.

Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around! 

If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.

Link Reference:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9345114/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9345114/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8338753/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6693933/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239286/
• https://www.science.org/content/article/how-cigarette-chemical-kills-eggs
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6693933/