Saturday 4 June 2011

NHS raises the bar for smoking men

A report in today's Daily Telegraph, within their "In Brief" section, is a precis of this article, published two days ago.

Despite there being limited evidence that smoking before conception leads to seriously damaged sperm, some  primary care trusts (PCTs) are raising the bar by insisting that where couples apply for IVF on the NHS, the man must pass a no-smoking test.

I am unable to find anything on the Department of Health website on this policy - so who made the decision and by/with what authority? If there is only limited evidence that smoking before conception leads to seriously damaged sperm, then this cannot be a 'medical decision' - more possibly one based on ideology?

Or maybe those that made the decision are also involved in this private clinic?

5 comments:

Chuckles said...

'Do you smoke after sex?' 'I don't know, I've never looked...'

The old ones are the best.

A K Haart said...

"Despite there being limited evidence that smoking before conception leads to seriously damaged sperm"

Now we know that much scientific evidence is selected to support a policy rather than the other way round, then what are we supposed to believe anyway? Hard-nosed cynicism is the best approach.

PeterCharles said...

I suspect that this is just more medical faddism, an offshoot of political correctness.

Like eggs are bad for you, only eat one a week. Few people realise that eggs are now again good for you, you should eat one every day.


Salt in diet is another good example. The whole salt hypothesis is based on clinical studies from about 30 years ago that suggested there was evidence of salt intolerance in some patients with hypertension and or heart disease, with about ten per cent of patients with those conditions implicated.

Further cultural correlation studies seemed to support the contention, after all, people in less developed societies showed a much lower incidence of hypertension, but they also had a lower salt intake. Those studies have been completely trashed since then, of course.

Axe grinders and organisations snatch at anything that seems to promote their view point and soak all these half-baked ideas to 'prove' their point. Neither reality nor common sense has any place with those people or organisations that use these things and once they have spoken it doesn't matter how debunked the idea is, they cling to it like s*** to a blanket. One has only to look at AGW.

Woodsy42 said...

As far as I can see almost every policy connected with smoking is ideological or profit motivated rather than fact based

WitteringsfromWitney said...

C: As you say the old ones are the best - as I keep saying when trying to get laid........

AKH: Agreed.

PC: Agree with every word!

W42: Yup, as PC said above, it applies to so much nowadays.