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
As mentioned, smoking has a detrimental effect on your cardiovascular systems and general blood health.
Researchers have found that smokers generally have constricted blood vessels due to plaque, impairing the flow of nutrients and other essentials our body needs.
These affected blood vessels reduce blood flow to the genital region, resulting in poorer male erections that increase the risk of erectile dysfunction. Restricted blood flow also reduces genital sensitivity in both males and females.
To put it simply, smokers should strive to stop smoking for good not only for their overall health, but to restore their general drive and find contentment and a stronger bond with their partners.
Hormonal Imbalance
Aside from your blood health, cigarettes also affect your hormones.
Nicotine is a huge disruption to your body’s endocrine system, which is responsible for governing hormone levels in your body. Continuous consumption of cigarettes – especially if you’re older – will significantly affect your testosterone and estrogen levels.
Testosterone is responsible for bringing young males into adolescence by building their muscles and sex drive. Over time, testosterone levels decrease, affecting your physique and sex drive.
One study has shown that testosterone levels decrease much faster in men who frequently smoke, affecting their sex drive and overall performance.
In women, estrogen levels decrease quickly in women who consume cigarettes regularly to the point it can bring about menopause much quicker than expected.
Simply stated, males and females should stop smoking for good to ensure their hormones make them feel the satisfaction brought about by their sex drives.
Psychological Factors
A smoker is often distracted by their craving for nicotine and their mood swings a few hours after they’ve had a cigarette. Cravings and withdrawals can reach such high levels of distraction that it affects their overall sex drive.
Studies have shown that smoking continuously causes depression, anxiety, and consistently high levels of stress. Nicotine has a detrimental effect on your overall psyche to the point it impacts your hormone activity and libido levels.
Furthermore, smoking alters your habits significantly, causing a heavy dependence that’s hard to break. Even today, motivated smokers who have stopped for a month or a few years still find it difficult to handle withdrawal symptoms without proper quit-smoking aids.
By quitting smoking, you’ll greatly improve your hormone balance, vascular health, fertility, and overall performance. You’ll also get plenty of improvements in your quality of life, too.
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 bulk-billing Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good, including using responsible vaping products where appropriate.
Click here to book your bulk-billed telehealth consultation with an Australian healthcare professional and quit smoking today.