154: Negative Impacts of Nicotine on Male and Female Fertility

Artwork for podcast Natural Fertility with Dr. Jane

Episode 154 • 6th May 2025 • Natural Fertility with Dr. Jane • Dr. Jane Levesque

Dr. Jane Levesque: 00:00

I am such a proponent for the human body. I think it's such a phenomenal machine. And pregnancy is probably one of the most beautiful things that a couple can go through. It's truly transformative, I think, for both and obviously more so for the woman. But it is very transformative for the men as well. If you let it be transformative, you don't. Obviously the men can choose. I don't think the women can just because we go through it. But yeah, anything that keeps us in the fight or flight is not something that I think is, you know, beneficial long term. And then of course there's the long term risk. So the biggest thing is the dependence and the addiction, you guys. And like I said, there's some studies showing that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Pregnancy is a natural process. So if it's not happening or if it's not sticking, something is missing. After having a family member go through infertility and experiencing a miscarriage myself, I realized how little support and education women have around infertility. I want to change that. Jane I'm Dr. Jane Levesque. I'm a naturopathic doctor and a natural fertility expert. Tune in every Tuesday at 9am for insightful case studies, expert interviews and practical tips on how you can optimize fertility naturally. If you've been struggling with infertility, pregnancy loss, women's health issues, or you just want to be proactive and prepare yourself for the next big chapter in your life, this show is for you.

Hey guys, I'm super excited today to talk to you about nicotine, which might not be a super hot topic for you or maybe it is the hottest topic for you because it's something that you're struggling with a nicotine addiction. It's something that I've been hearing a lot from some of my group members in the fertility 101 and of course with the members with my one on one clients. And it's definitely something that I'm seeing in the younger population, but I think it just really depends on what circles you're in and what it is that you're trying to use the nicotine for. It has been popularized a lot for productivity and focus. So if you are in the entrepreneurial world or a CEO or just like a high achiever and you're looking to increase, maybe you're going to school, you're looking to increase your focus and get the most, you know, be the most productive that you can be. This is something that unfortunately is advertised by even a lot of influencers. And some influencers that I love and I adore, that I think are fantastic entrepreneurs and fantastic human beings. But if they're coming out and, you know, giving you their hack, their biohack for being able to focus all day, and it's like, hey, here's my morning routine. And my, here's how I get all this stuff done. And I wake up, I drink coffee, I take, you know, I have a nicotine tab or I chew nicotine gum. I put headphones in, and that's how I focus. To me, I think it's a huge disservice.

Now, I know they don't do it on purpose. They're just literally sharing their biohack. But, like, you're sharing your addiction. We have seen studies that nicotine can be as addictive as cocaine. And for some people, that experience is what it is in terms of the cravings that they get when they run low on nicotine and how difficult it is for them to get off it and the withdrawal symptoms that are associated with it. And so I want to just call out people that if you have this addiction and that is what it is, and maybe there's some people who just need it once in a while. Meaning you're only using it once a week or once every three months when there is a big project and something that you need to focus on. That is not how most people are using it. They're using it on a daily basis. And then what's happening is because the addiction component is so big in the withdrawal symptoms are quite uncomfortable. You tend to just kind of pop another tab or, you know, a patch or chewing gum, whatever it is that you're using. And it's like saying, this is my relaxation routine. I get home, I drink a bottle of wine and then I pass out. And it's like, that's not a relaxation routine. That's like, you know, you're borderline alcoholic. So this is the same thing to me. If you're having a hard time focusing, if you have a hard time with your energy, I want to know why. I don't want you just to take an energy drink or have a nicotine tab or a nicotine gum, whatever. I want to understand the root cause. Because what I'm going to talk to you guys today is the negative implications, the short term and long term, and the direct and indirect implications that it has on fertility for both male and female. Because when I look at a couple and the couple that I'm thinking about today, and you know, he's using 10 to 15 tabs a day. And she is vaping. And when she's trying to quit vaping, she basically has the same withdrawal symptoms and ends up using nicotine tab. And so she's using a lot less. But they're both very much addicted and there's a lot of underlying issues, and it's not something that she can continue doing through pregnancy. And they've been trying to conceive for God knows how long. And no one has addressed this where it's the obvious component here. It's not that the nicotine is even that bad. It's what's underneath the nicotine and why they're using it. And so that's kind of the direct and the indirect effect. So I'm going to. And if it's just your man that's using it, then of course, get him to listen to this podcast because like I said, we need to understand all of the implications of having an action. And I do blame some of the influencers who are just going out and saying, yeah, this is what I do. This is great. It works for me. And they have millions of people who are watching them and thinking, well, I want to be as successful as this person, so I'm going to start doing this. And so what I will tell you is I never take health advice from my business mentors, just like I never take business advice from my doctor. Right.

And it's just really understanding what lane you're in and what you're trying to get out of people. So if I'm trying to be healthy, but I also want to run a successful business, I will take the components of the business, but I'm not going to take the components of the health or the biohacks or the whatever, unless it aligns for me. And, you know, I agree and I believe it. So let's talk about nicotine in terms of low dosage versus high dosage. So if I compare it to cigarette smoking. So when you're smoking, you're getting about 1 to 2 milligrams per cigarette of nicotine. And I would say that's considered, quote, unquote, low dose, whatever that means. I'm not going to talk about smoking because smoking, we know, has detrimental effects on our health across the board, not just for fertility. For both male and female, the oxidative damage, stress from smoking and all the chemicals and the toxins. It's not the nicotine that's causing all the issues for fertility when someone is smoking. And so that's a whole separate topic. And it's definitely something that people need to stop doing. If you want to optimize your fertility, if you want to have a healthy baby, if you want to set yourself up for success, but just to give you. Because a lot of people, they usually have smoked. And believe it or not, I used to smoke. And I remember in high school, it's like the big component of smoking is you want to fit in. And so I was in a group of friends who were all smoking, and so it was cool to smoke. And then as soon as I went to college, my friends were actually. The friends that I found were not smokers. And they thought it was actually kind of gross. And they didn't go outside with me. Whether we were at the bar or whatever. They like, no, you do. You. We don't need that. And so it was really easy for me to stop because I wasn't getting that. You know, not only peer pressure, but I actually felt like I was outcasted if I smoked. As opposed to in high school, it was the opposite. So sometimes when it's difficult to stop smoking, what we do is we'll use something like the patch or the gum, right? And so that's why I kind of want to bring it in. And so there's the 1-2mg is considered a low dose. And then, you know, we have the gum that's anywhere between 2 to 4 milligrams. And then there is also the lozenges, the mints, that can be 4 or 6 milligrams. So if you're having a lozenge, the lozenges can be also lower, 1 to 2 milligrams. And then you can have four and as high as six. So if you think about it, comparison to a cigarette, let's say a cigarette is 2 milligrams of nicotine, the cigarette that you have, because all of them are going to be different. And you have a lozenge that has 6 milligrams, that's like. Like smoking three cigarettes in a row, right? Or smoking two cigarettes in a row. And if the cigarette usually that you used to have was 1 milligram, and now you're having a 4 milligram, that's like smoking four cigarettes in a row. So when you think about that, you're like, oh, that's pretty crazy to be able to get the same amount of nicotine. So I think these gums and these lozenges are. Can be much higher dose of nicotine for some of you. And like I said, the big effect with smoking is the oxidative stress, not the actual nicotine component. But here's what we're seeing short term effects for nicotine. And if you are using this, you probably experience these in some way, shape or form. And so I am going to tie it to fertility and the negative implication. And when I say like direct impact on fertility versus indirect impact. For example, if one of the most common things that happens when you do nicotine is you can get nausea and stomach upset, so you kind of just feel que. Queasy. If you feel queasy or you lose appetite or your stomach is upset, the direct implication of that is like, well, you don't feel well. You know, the indirect implication is that you're probably are not going to make very good food choices or eat at all. Some of my people who use nicotine a lot, they won't eat all day and then at nighttime they usually don't make great choices because by the time the hunger does kick in and they have it, they're just ready to eat anything. And so whether it's takeout, whether, whether it's, you know, just like really simple carbs, whatever, it's not like this perfectly well balanced meal. You're not eating high quality protein and you didn't make your salad and all these veggies. So you see how there is the direct impact of oh, I don't feel well.

And then there is the indirect because of the choices that you're going to make based on how you felt. The other short term effect, right, the heartburn and the acid reflux, that's again going to go in with the digestive system where the digestive system is not feeling well and it's not working. Not only you don't feel well, but then you're not eating, you're not getting the food and the nutrients in, you're not absorbing those nutrients, you're making poor choices. And that is what's going to impact the quality of the egg and the sperm. And I think for women we take a lot of responsibility and we feel a lot of shame around when we're not getting pregnant because we feel like we're doing something wrong and our eggs are all spoiled or they're all bad. Where for males, a lot of the times they're told that, well, the sperm is fine. And I'm telling you guys, your sperm is not fine. If you are having these bursts of, if you will, whether it's nicotine, whether it's drinking, whether it's going out and eating a bunch, you like the lack of sleep, the stress, all of those things are going to be a reflection of your sperm quality. And if you just look at yourself in the mirror, naked, preferably, and you can tell me that, like, this is the healthiest version of me, if you can't do that, then we know that there is improvements when it comes to the sperm quality because your health is going to be directly reflected. Everything that you do is going to be directly reflected in the quality of the sperm. And the quality of the sperm really matters for the health of the future generation in terms of like the placenta formation and implantation and miscarriage rates and then the health of the baby and their methylation and inflammation pathways. Like they're downloading half of the genetic code from the male. Right. And half of the genetic code from the female. So I just want to make sure that we're not being like, oh, it's okay, it doesn't matter that much for the men, it's like, no, it really does. And that's kind of one of the biggest issues that I'm seeing, is that the men don't think they need to be as involved where, when, like, you know, we as practitioners, myself and my practitioners are only working with couples. And there's a reason for that, because we don't see sperm. That's great. We don't see men that are healthy. They're told they're healthy, but we don't. Like, when we get on the call, it's like, you're not healthy. You need help. You might not need as much help as your wife who has endometriosis and pcos and all that stuff, but like, you still need help. I know, I'm digressing, but the short term effects, the digestive is big. I think it's big to make sure that obviously digestion is working well and you're making good decisions. Then of course, the increased heart rate and blood pressure, it activates your sympathetic nervous system. And we want that when we're trying to focus. The issue is we, I don't think in our society we have an issue being in the sympathetic nervous system. We have an issue being in the parasympathetic nervous system, which is rest and digestion, chest. And so you're spending a lot of time in the sympathetic nervous system state that fight or flight. And I naturally think we as humans are already there just based on how much time we spend on the screen, how stressful work is and, you know, like the EMFs and the Environmental toxins and all the things we have to do and everything that's going on in the world, I don't need someone to help me be more in a sympathetic nervous system. And I find that that imbalance just kind of feeds you further into the fight orf flight instead. Rest and digest. And again you see this pattern. Rest and digest. The digestion is going to struggle. And when digestion struggles, everything struggles because it is the way that we get our fuel. It is the way that the body assimilates nutrients and puts them into the bloodstream so then they can go to the right areas in the body. It is the way that we detox and get of rid of things we no longer need, including old hormones, including dead bacteria and parasites and all of this stuff.

So anything that impacts the digestive system, system, even short term, I'm always thinking like, well, what are we doing to support it, right? So someone using nicotine gum, it's not like, oh, I got an upset tummy and now I need to go ahead and drink some bone broth and take some collagen and do some of these things to help support my guide lining. I know that's not the thought that you're having because you don't think it's that bad. And so over long term that's absolutely going to add up for both males and females. It's how you absorb nutrients is a foundation of your health. So if you don't have any nutrients, how is the body supposed to do, you know, what you want it to do, what it's designed to do? And I give the quotation marks here because we have so much like, well, my body's supposed to be able to do that. And it's like, yeah, but you're also supposed to sleep eight hours a night and you're supposed to drink clean water and you're supposed to fuel your body. And so we put a lot of shoulds on the body while we have no idea how the machinery works. It's like saying, yeah, the car should be running really fast while you're not putting any fuel in. You haven't changed in oil. Like you don't even know where the gas pedal is or the brake. So I don't. I am such a proponent for the human body. I think it's such a phenomenal machine and pregnancy is probably one of the most beautiful things that a couple can go through. It's truly transformative, I think, for both and obviously more so for the woman, but it is very transformative for the men as well. If you let it be transformative, you don't Obviously the men can choose. I don't think the women can just because we go through it. But yeah, anything that keeps us in the fight or flight is not something that I think is, you know, beneficial long term. And then of course there's the long term risk. So the biggest thing is the dependence in the addiction, you guys. And like I said, there's some studies showing that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. Just let that sit in for a second. If it's not this innocent tap that you're just going to take to help you focus, stay awake in class to do whatever this thing has the potential to become part of your life. And I remember my boyfriend in high school smoked and he was quote unquote healthy guys. Otherwise, you know, he went to the gym and he tried to eat well and we would do macros and stuff together. Like when it just first started and it was like such a huge dependence. I, to be honest, I have no idea if he quit finally. I hope so. But it was really, really hard for him. He couldn't. It was a really big component. And so with addiction there's always going to be nutrient deficiencies and neurotransmitter issues that we'll talk about what my recommendations are for weaning but if there is a dependence on something, I'm always thinking that there is like we don't want to have to depend on anything. If you have to depend on something for function, like an external substance that always gives me like huh, why? You know, what's going on? What is it doing to us that makes it very difficult for you to stop. Right? It's there's a difference in depending on water and high quality food and you know, but versus like hey, if I don't have this, my body starts to break down. I think that there's a problem in that. And then there's a couple long term risks that I think most people are not realizing. One of them is actually insulin resistance and blood sugar regulation because nicotine does affect the glucose metabolism and how you're metabolizing it. And so we are seeing more insulin resistance. The couple that I'm thinking of, he actually had pretty high leptin levels and high leptin levels is associated with insulin resistance and leptin resistance. So like you're not getting the message that you are full, you know. And so then there's the body is not using insulin and blood sugar is staying in the blood vessels instead of going and being used for the body. And so there's A lot of issues with metabolism right now, seeing a lot of metabolic disease. And then, of course, like I said, when someone's taking nicotine tabs all day and then they come home at nighttime to unwind, usually now you haven't eaten anything properly all day. You probably haven't hydrated yourself well, you probably didn't go to the gym and exercise and, you know, relieve tension and stress that way. You are probably now really starving. Your stomach is feeling all off and upset, and you're just. Just ready to eat anything and everything. And then the blood sugar goes through the roof, and then you go to bed and you repeat the same thing. That's going to create a lot of issues for the body long term. And I see people doing that and thinking, like, yeah, but I'll just deal with it later.

And the analogy that I used with this couple, because he's going to law school, and I'm like, listen, you could have just like, you want to go to law school because you want to provide for your family and you want to have a dependable job and career. And, like, you're really looking out for the future here. Imagine you said, I'm just going to play video games until I'm 40. And then when I'm 40, I'll go to law school and, like, then I'll figure it out. It sounds ridiculous. You're like, what? No, that's. That would be so much harder at your 40. Like, what do you. This is the same thing when it comes to our health. I think we put our health last because we're like, we'll just figure it out. And we have this high expectation that the body's just going to keep going for us until it doesn't. And so I think it's really important for everyone to check all of their markers and make sure they know where their blood sugar and their insulin and their metabolic markers are at in their liver and their kidney function and electrolytes and basic nutrients. I run a lot of testing on people. You don't have to run a lot. If you just run a good blood work panel, I guarantee you, you're going to see things that are off, that are really important markers for development of disease down the road. And, you know, this guy that I'm thinking about, he had so many cardiovascular markers and so many metabolic markers that off, you know, 25 years old, you're like, that's crazy, bro. Like, this is when you should have the best health, not the worst health. If you're like this at 25, do you know what happens when you're 40, like that's a heart attack. That's not even, you know. And I'm not saying that to scare people, but I just think people have disconnected from their bodies completely and they just assume that the body is going to be able to do stuff for it. It's like, no, we kind of learn how to take care of it. It. I'm going on a lot of tangents, I apologize, but insulin resistance, blood sugar is a big one. The other one is vasoconstriction because one of the things, right, sympathetic nervous system fight ORF flight is narrow blood vessels, but over time you can cause high blood pressure, you can cause cardiovascular and high blood pressure comes with all this other issues, right? And if you have most people I don't think know what their parents are struggling with. Cuz they're like my parents are fine. And I'm like, what's fine? Like have they had testing done? Are they carrying extra weight? Do they have aches and pains? Like we just assume, oh, it's just age and so they're fine. But they do have all of these problems actually that they just don't talk about to you, which is fine. But you should know what your, what is in your history line because those are your genetics. So if you have anyone in the family that has had a heart attack, that has had a stroke and right, think aunts, uncles, obviously grandparents and some great grandparents. There's a lot of people who are like, I look exactly like my dad, I'm built exactly like my dad. And so then look at your dad history, look at your dad's grandpa, like dad's dad and mom and even one higher up to see where are people dying off and why are they dying off? Oh, they died really late, you know, at like 80 of, of heart disease and it's like, yeah, that's still the weakest link for them. So know your history. If anybody in the family has a stroke, had a heart attack, had high blood pressure, has high cholesterol, had deep vein thrombosis, those are all signs of poor cardiovascular system and you likely have some genetic component to it. And so the genetics, remember, they turn on in a certain environment and they turn off in another environment. If your environment is turning them on, the bad genes like nicotine and poor eating and not exercising or smoking or eating junk, those genes are going to be on you are headed towards having cardiovascular disease and more serious things like a heart attack or high blood pressure, all that stuff versus if you're Eating well, you're sleeping, you're moving your body. You're not, you know, you're not putting anything in your body that you know is going to have negative impacts. The genes are going to be off. So you have the genetics, but it's the environment that will determine if they're going to be on or off. Increase anxiety and sleep disturbance. I know it seems silly, but I have again, the couple that I'm thinking about, like, he has insomnia. And I'm like, I don't think you have insomnia. I think you just jacked up on nicotine and you take so many tabs that it's like, we gotta get you off some of this stuff. So insomnia, agitation, obviously having withdrawal symptoms if you are trying, whether it's like headaches, but this increased anxiety and kind of the sympathetic overdrive long term, if you're not sleeping.

We know those are. That's probably one of the worst things. When I have somebody who's only sleeping three hours a night or four hours a night or like anything under six, I'm like, red flags are going up. Like, huge red flags. Six to seven and a half hours. I'm like, if you're getting six to seven, yellow flag for me. But then when we're getting over seven, seven and a half, eight, I'm like, good, that's what we should be getting. But under six, huge red flags because the whole system is screwed up, up. Not only is the cortisol up, your inflammation is up, your blood sugar is disregulated, your immune system doesn't have the opportunity to do its cleanup at nighttime. Like, nothing gets an opportunity to regenerate. And so you are in a chronically inflamed state. And that is a recipe for a lot of diseases, whether it's cancer development or Alzheimer's or heart disease or metabolic disease. Like, everything basically will be 10 times worse when you're not sleeping well. And so even though it might seem like a small symptom, like, oh, I just have some sleep disturbances, I want to know how much sleep disturbances you have and you know how long they've been there for. Because the longer they've been there, the longer the issue, obviously there is some dental problems that are associated especially with the lozenges because they are acidic. So gum recession, tooth erosion, increased plaque, of course that's going to. I'm going to bring you back to the microbial imbalance and what that can cause because you're swallowing multiple times, you know, 300, 500 times a day, day. And that's now going into the stomach and impacting the microbiome there. And then the foods that you're going to be craving is going to be different. Like when someone tells me that they crave McDonald's or that they crave junk food, I'm not thinking of like, oh, this person is bad and they don't have discipline. What it tells me is that their microbiome is actually not great. It's east, it's fungus, it's bacterial overgrowth, it's parasites. All of these things are going to dictate eat our taste buds. And if you enjoy McDonald's, that gives me a level, an understanding of where your microbiome is at. Because when you have a healthy microbiome, you don't want that stuff because it's not real food. There's chemicals, you can taste them. I can't even drive by McDonald's now. I'm like, it's just like, it's fake. You can smell the seed oils, you can smell the chemicals. And so like I said, I don't blame the person. I never say that you are poor discipline and you need to work harder and you just need to stop doing it. My approach is show me the gut. Like poop in this box. Show me the gut, show me the neurotransmitters, show me your nutrient levels. Because if I give you some supplements to help support and just like some basic things like, hey, let's have a smoothie with this and let's hide some stuff in there so we can start growing the good microbiome. You will also start to have a reaction to some of these foods that you used to love because you'll realize that like, oh, this isn't food. My body is rejecting this now. So it should be rejecting really poor fuel. Just like a Ferrari. If you put diesel in it, it can run, but it's not great. You're the same thing. You can't just put crap fuel in it and expect that the body is going to run well. And like I said, a lot of it is getting the system cleaned out. So then you can actually start to trust your taste buds a little bit. So, yeah, dental problems, obviously they're connected to so many health issues. And then of course, a potential carcinogenic risk. Risk. So nicotine exposure may contribute to some cancer risk because of the cell proliferation effects. So it short term, like cell proliferation, Cell division is one of the things that it does to help with focus and, you know. Yeah, with the focus and energy and helping you feel. I don't want to say like yourself again, but just like, help you feel motivated. I want you to have all of those things, but I don't want you to use an external substance. Substance, right. So if you need energy, I want you to have energy from the inside out. I don't want you to have an energy drink. If you need focus. I want to figure out why you don't have focus is if you have anxiety. Because, let's face it, some people use nicotine for anxiety, and it helps to calm them, believe it or not, even though it is actually putting them in the sympathetic. I find that's more of, like the withdrawal symptoms.

You start to get anxiety and you start to get anxious. But if you have anxiety, I want to know why. And it's not because you're weak or you don't have this, or you're just. That's the way you are. No, that's the way that your body's talking to you and telling us that something is out of balance. And so anxiety is usually a deeper issue going on. If you're not sleeping already, you know, I want to know why your nervous system is not letting you shut down. That's the gist of it, is we want to understand why. And. And if you're like, oh, because this influencer was doing it, don't do that. Don't follow some health advice from someone who's really great at business. But. And like I said, I never take advice from my business mentor on my health. Just like from my doctor, I never take advice on how to run my business. And it's just a filter that I have. And I always check in with myself if something doesn't feel right, you go, huh, maybe I shouldn't do that. And a lot of the times people are like, yeah, I know it's not good. I just don't know how to stop now. So here is kind of my really quick. I'm going to wrap this up, but how. I want you to think about an approach, how I approach this nicotine addiction. The first thing is, like, I want you to understand how much nicotine you're actually consuming. We have to put a number on it. Are you having 10 tabs? Are you having two tabs? Are you having. When are you having it? And the first step is going to be obviously to just start decreasing the dose. But, you know, before you even do that, my approach is always to test and understand what's going on with the system and see how we can support it. So it's easier for it to come off this addiction because like I said, with addiction you're gonna see microbial imbalances, you're gonna see neurotransmitter imbalances or serotonin, dopamine, you're gonna see nutrient deficiencies, whether it's all the B vitamins, B3, B5, B6, B12, B9, ferritin, iron, calcium, vitamin D, like you name it. Any nutrient deficiency can cause symptoms for us, just like any nutrient deficiency can lead to a miscarriage. So my approach is like, let's test and let's see what's going on. And I'll test everything. I'll look at the blood sugars, I'll look at the cardiovascular health, I'll look at the stool analysis, I'll look at environmental toxic panel, I'll look at a nutrient analysis panel as well, like really deeply to help me understand what vitamins and minerals and amino acids and fatty acids, all that stuff that you're missing. Because it's going to be really hard for your body to come off chronic addiction when you have low new, like when it's anxious, when it's overwhelmed, when it's depleted. Right. There's a need for this nicotine or whatever addiction it is. It's just my approach is always like, can we support the body? And then it will make it easier, like, can we give it a leg up so it's easier for you to quit? So for this couple, and I'll, you know, I'll keep you updated as they go. But once we do the testing and we see that, like, she had a pretty high cardiovascular risk. He had a pretty high cardiovascular risk and metabolic issues. You know, there's anxiety for her, more so than is for him, but it's. He still has anxiety and stress and overwhelm. And, you know, he's in school full time, so he's trying to focus and get, like, make sure that he's studying really well. So this is definitely performance based for him, whereas for her, it's kind of just like this bad habit that stuck with her. And it's. It's been difficult to get rid of it because of the anxiety, because of the overwhelm that she experiences on a regular basis. And then when she tries to quit, it just, you know, it takes her over the top and so she can't do it. So we just ran the tests and we see the risks and we see the infections like they both had either bacterial overgrowth or yeast overgrowth. So there was just a lot going on in the gut and a lot of inflammation. We are still waiting for some labs to come back in terms of the nutrient panel, but we are slowly starting on just improving drainage and, you know, fixing some of his eating habits because he doesn't really have any. And helping her find some routine and balance and helping them come together as a team. Because, you know, it's common for women to feel like they're doing all the stuff and the men are not doing anything. And, you know, I find a lot of the times it's not that the men are not doing anything. It's like they don't really know how to. To help us. And we don't want to make lists because we feel bad or we've nagged them about this a thousand times. Like, he knows what to do. Men just don't have the same running list that we do. And what I tell my ladies is that, like, you have to train your man, and it takes years to train him. And there obviously has to be a desire on his side and understanding. Like, for example, if you never wash your dishes or you never do this, or you never do this, this, I feel unheard. I feel unimportant. It feels like my time is not that valuable because I should be the one spending cleaning versus you can just do whatever.

And so the real problem is that you don't feel important to him. You don't feel acknowledged. And so he doesn't think like that. He just thinks, oh, she's nagging me because it's bothering her that it's dirty. And so it's your job to actually, actually express that and say, hey, I don't feel important. And this is what helps me feel like you care about who I am and you want to help me. I think it's a very different conversation. Again, side tangent. I don't know what's going on today, but you get the idea is like, we need to come together. We need to support the body and support the microbiome and then get an idea of how many tabs you're actually using and then start decreasing it. I think a lot of the times you're like, I just pop it whenever I need to. But my goal is like, hey, can we stretch it out a little bit? Can we make it harder for you to get it? So it's like when you run out of the gum or the tabs or the vape or the whatever, you don't just go get it right away. You wait an hour or, you know, you forget it in the car. By accident, or you leave it upstairs or you do whatever. So it doesn't just becomes this thing that as soon as, oh, you can feel the nicotine has worn off. Now I need more because like I said said, short term there's side effects, but long term, the cardiovascular disease, the blood sugar dysregulation, the anxiety, the stress, the higher risk of cancers, it's like, we know those things, you guys. And when I'm talking about it from the context of fertility, of course all of those things are going to impact egg and sperm quality. And whether it's the stress that will get steal away from the progesterone and the testosterone levels from the man, or it's the inflammation levels because now you're not sleeping well and then the blood sugar is dysregul and so that's more inflammation. I'm passionate about helping couples bring healthy babies home. And that means you have to be healthy, both you and your partner. You can't build a generational health with just one person. That's not how it works. To make a baby, we need sperm and we need the egg. And part of it is learning how to work together as a team. And part of it is, you know, learning how to each individual person taking their own ownership to say, I want to be the healthiest and the best version of myself, because I recognize that's the thing that's going to pass on to the next generation. Literally the way that you feel right now, if you feel fantastic, if you feel abundant with energy and overflowing, then likelihood that you have good fertility for both you and your man. But none of my couples feel that way. When I meet them, they're exhausted, they're inflamed, they're. They're like, they can't think straight. They're super anxious, and they just want to have a baby. And it's like that's not the environment where the baby can grow, where the soul can come in even because there's not enough nutrients, there's too much inflammations, there's too many pathogens. You know, there's too many addictions. There's too many things that we haven't dealt with yet that there is no room for another soul. And so part of getting rid of some of these addictions is making room for something else. And making room, I think, is really important physically, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I hope you guys find this helpful. My hope is that you are not, whether it's, ladies, you are having the nicotine issue, or men, we stop brushing it off and thinking that it's just nothing and it doesn't matter and it's just nicotine. And there's a lot of benefits and there's some benefits for sure, but as soon as I see the addictive component, I'm like, I don't want to be taking anything. My body has to depend on and has withdrawal symptoms. Like, and I've seen people on podcasts who I respect, and I'm like, they're weird, they're acting weird, they're like anxious. And then it's like, oh, you, I can tell you take a nicotine tab because you're not yourself. You can't be yourself. You're all hyped up. And I've seen that in meetings in business. I'm like, I wish this person was just them instead of, of, you know, nicotine them. And so I obviously, I pick up on those things all the time. You might not pick up on it maybe as a girlfriend or a wife, you know, partner to your husband. You do. So let's not push it aside. I think it is important to talk about the short term and the long term effects and set ourselves up for success. Meaning don't just say, I'm going to quit tomorrow because it's unlike that will happen. But, but what is the help that you need? And, you know, maybe I just start decreasing the dosage and then I start, you know, eating better because you don't have to do all the testing. But I find that when you do the testing, it helps. It's. There's ways to obviously wean off this and it's just being diligent. And I would give yourself three months, like minimum eight weeks, but you probably are going to need three months and some people are going to need some more depending on how frequently you're using it now, now and what you're using it for. So set realistic expectations and, you know, make sure that you have a support system because it's important. It is an addiction. So it's important to have a support system for that. All right, thanks so much for tuning in, you guys. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening. To read the full show notes of this episode, including summary, timestamps, guest quotes, and any resources that were mentioned on the episode. Visit drjanelevesque.com podcast and if you're getting value from these episodes, I'd love it if you took 2 minutes to share it with a friend. Rate and leave me a review@ratethispodcast.com Dr.Jane the reviews will help with the discoverability of the show. And who knows, I might share your review on my next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. And let's make your fertility journey your healing journey.

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