Smoking remains a major public health crisis. Nearly half of women of childbearing age smoke, and one-third continue early in pregnancy. As Professor Wolf, head of the reproductive biology, histology-embryology department at Cochin Hospital in Paris, explains (1), "tobacco precipitates the age of menopause. It causes vascular micro-traumas which, for women as for men, affect the vessels, the heart, and more." Dr. Epelboin, obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive physician at the Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital Group in Paris, adds (2), "Its effects potentiate other fertility abnormalities. In women, they reduce implantation chances by impacting the ovarian reserve early on."
Certain medications have also proven harmful. Take Distilbène, marketed in the 1950s to prevent miscarriages. Banned in France since 1977, its effects linger today, though now better understood and managed.
The 2008 investigation "Males in Danger" by Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade across Europe (2) revealed how everyday chemicals—plastics, pesticides, and more—disrupt our endocrine systems. "These products act directly on spermatogenesis," notes Professor Wolf. Their dangers were confirmed in the 1990s, but their widespread use began over 50 years ago.
Psychoanalyst Joëlle Desjardins-Simon (3), with over 15 years in a medically assisted procreation (PMA) service, observes that most couples face unexplained infertility. Unconscious elements often contribute: "trauma from personal history, bonds with parents, sibling dynamics, and more." Even with optimal biology and advanced techniques, PMA success rates hover below 25%.
"While women often bear the brunt of infertility," Desjardins-Simon continues, "it's intertwined in the couple's dynamics—two histories colliding. A woman with motherhood challenges may unconsciously partner with a man facing his own barriers to fatherhood. Transgenerational traumas can also block conception, despite the couple's desire." Open dialogue—with partners, friends, or therapists—can transform outcomes (4).
1. Head of the reproductive biology histology-embryology department at Cochin Hospital in Paris.
2. Obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive physician at the Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital Group in Paris.
3. Europa Prize 2008.
4. Author, with Sylvie Debras, of “The Unconscious Locks of Fertility,” Éditions Albin Michel, 2010.
