The Impact of Opium on Men's Fertility and DNA Fragmentation: A Literature Review

Addiction to opium and illicit substances has become a significant issue that must be dealt with because limitless complications can arise from their misusage. It’s impossible to deny the significance of those. The relationship between OS (Oxidative stress), which eventually leads to DNA fragmentation and illicit substance addiction has been suspected, and there have been many attempts to prove it. Infertility involves many couples globally, and several causes are attributed to it. However, the reasons for many of these cases remain unknown. We investigated the review studies on the relationship between illicit substances and infertility. Surprisingly, the odds of fertility decrease in individuals who administrate illegal substances. Many studies have illuminated that in addition to hormonal modulation levels and pathological changes, DNA fragmentation should be considered as a cause of infertility. However, most studies were animal studies, and there is a lack of evidence in clinical studies. Antioxidants can be used as the first-choice treatment in patients with unknown causes of infertility. The outcomes of antioxidants in animal studies were satisfactory; however, against all the odds, the results in clinical studies were not as good.

Keywords:

Substance Use , DNA Fragmentation , Infertility , Opium