Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26770934›Full record

ReviewThe world journal of men's health2015

Smoking and Male Infertility: An Evidence-Based Review.

Avi Harlev, Ashok Agarwal, Sezgin Ozgur Gunes, Amit Shetty, Stefan Simon du Plessis

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in The world journal of men's health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
90citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

90 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pollutants and sperm quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. A Preconception Cohort Study of Nicotine Vaping and Incidence of Spontaneous Abortion.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026
    Article
  7. Quercetin attenuates nicotine-induced ovarian and uterine dysfunction in rats.Clinical and experimental reproductive medicine · 2026
    Article
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  14. Article
  15. Observational
  16. Review
  17. Article
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  20. Review

30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Avi HarlevAmerican Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.; Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soroka University Medical Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel.
Ashok AgarwalAmerican Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Sezgin Ozgur GunesAmerican Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.; Department of Medical Biology, Ondokuz Mayis University Faculty of Medicine, Samsun, Turkey.
Amit ShettyAmerican Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Stefan Simon du PlessisAmerican Center for Reproductive Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.; Division of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Many studies have reported that the contents of cigarette smoke negatively affect sperm parameters, seminal plasma, and various other fertility factors. Nevertheless, the actual effect of smoking on male fertility is not clear. The effect of smoking on semen parameters is based on the well-established biological finding that smoking increases the presence of reactive oxygen species, thereby resulting in oxidative stress (OS). OS has devastating effects on sperm parameters, such as viability and morphology, and impairs sperm function, hence reducing male fertility. However, not all studies have come to the same conclusions. This review sheds light upon the arguable association between smoking and male fertility and also assesses the impact of non-smoking routes of tobacco consumption on male infertility. It also highlights the evidence that links smoking with male infertility, including newly emerging genetic and epigenetic data, and discusses the clinical implications thereof.

Indexed as

Erectile dysfunctionInfertility, maleSmokingSpermatogenesisSpermatozoa

Identifiers

PMID26770934
PMCPMC4709430

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.