Although considered a safer alternative to smoking, vaping can also be related to health issues corresponding to respiration difficulties, asthma and cancer. A recent study has found vaping can affect male fertility by causing testicles to shrink, reducing sperm count and sex drive.

Vaping involves inhaling and exhaling aerosol, known as vapor, using a handheld electronic device corresponding to an electronic cigarette or vape pen. In traditional cigarettes, tobacco burns to supply smoke. In vaping devices, an e-liquid or vape juice is heated to supply vapor.

E-cigarette aerosol is taken into account safer than cigarette smoke, however it still incorporates highly addictive and toxic nicotine, harmful chemicals, volatile organic compounds and cancer-causing agents.

Previous studies have shown that regular cigarette smoking can affect male fertility. In the most recent study, published within the Spanish medical journal Revista Internacional de Andrología, researchers from Sivas Cumhuriyet University in Turkey evaluated the impact of vaping on the sexual health of male mice.

The study involved three groups of mice – one exposed to regular cigarettes, one other exposed to vaping and a control group. The mice within the experimental groups were kept under bell jars and were exposed to their respective smoking technique twice a day for an hour every time.

The research team evaluated their urine cotinine levels, testicular weights, gonadosomatic index, sperm count, sperm motility and testicular histology and compared them with the values of the control group.

The sperm count of the e-cigarette group was 95.1 million sperm/ml and the standard cigarette group was 89 million sperm/ml, while the control group showed a mean of 98.5 million/ml.

The group exposed to cigarette smoke had the smallest and lightest testes in comparison with those exposed to e-cigarette vapor and the control group. Five out of eight mice exposed to vaping showed structural changes within the testes.

“It must be considered that although [e-cigarette] liquid has been introduced as harmless in smoking cessation studies, it could increase oxidative stress and cause morphological changes within the testicle,” the researchers said. “To be a protected option in smoking cessation studies, its effect on people must be enlightened.”

Published by Medicaldaily.com