Older movies made smoking look “sexy”. Rings of smoke circled old movie actors - think Bogart puffing away as he hunches over the bar of Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca. And cinema sex was often followed up by a between-the-sheets cigarette break.

The after-sex cigarette may or may not be a movie myth, but smoking’s impact on sexual potency and fertility is clear.

While smoking wreaks all kinds of havoc on the body (check out this list of 20+ serious risks you run when you light up), women who smoke put their reproductive health on the line.

Female smokers are at heightened risk of cervical cancer, menstrual problems, miscarriage, and problems conceiving. What about men? Is the virile image of the Marlboro Man a myth, too?

via Medbroadcast: Smoking tobacco decreases sperm size and movement and can damage the genetic makeup of sperm cells. It may also have a negative effect on seminal fluid (the fluid that is ejaculated along with sperm).

Not to mention that male smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to struggle with impotence - an inability to get and maintain an erection.

Scanning the toxic components of smoke makes the head spin - tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, benzene - but who’d swoon at that cocktail? You shouldn’t expect to see these chemicals on anyone’s lists of likely aphrodisiacs.

Better sex and fertility - add those to the the benefits of quitting smoking!

You might also like to read …

What is ED?

9 ways to spice up your sex life (despite ED)

Erectile dysfunction from a guy’s perspective