I (man) smoked before conceiving, damage?

[scorpius1489]

Hi,
i know this sounds a bit strange but i am a male (35y) and my girlfriend is pregnant now (5 weeks).
My girlfriend doesn't smoke or drink and has a very healthy lifestyle. I drink once in a while a beer and i normally don't smoke. But august was a very stressfull time at my new job and i smoked 5-6 cigarettes a day that month... So when we ttc (beginning october) i already stopped smoking.
Now i am afraid that i did some damage to our child. I read a lot of scary things on the internet about damaged sperm and dna damage to a child that has parents who smoke...
I don't know what to do now?

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. The baby will not be ill because you smoked before it was concieved. The only damage that can be done through smoking is if your girlfriend was to smoke whilst pregnant or inhale 2nd hand smoke whilst being pregnant.

Actually, OP is right that there is some research indicating a link on this and epigenetic changes. If there were any effect, though, it would be much further down the line and would be a much, much, much, much etc smaller factor than things like the offspring's own lifestyle choices, early life exposures etc. Think of the children whose parents drank before and during pregnancy, before science knew any better, and lived with smokers indoors. It would be difficult to discern any effect in almost all cases and they are fine, although yes there probably was an effect.

SO OP, I don't think you have any reason for concern whatsoever in the circumstances you described, especially as this was in August and a lot of the RNA activity would have been in the month before conception. Even if you were a heavy smoker then, any effect is absolutely tiny and the absolute risk extremely small.

The healthy lifestyles you both generally lead are brilliant and something many babies don't get, don't worry, your child is very lucky to have such a caring father!

Honestly OP - don't worry at all, I wouldn't be and I think a lot about this kind of thing

I've only mentioned the research as I know myself it can be annoying when it's dismissed and then not reassuring because the "reassurance" misses the point

Thx everyone for understanding my concern... It really helps reading your messages...
Funny thing is that my girlfriend isn't worried at all... I am...

The only other thing i worry is that will our baby be healthy and will it be for the rest of it's life... I know that this is a question nobody can answer... But is there anything we can do to prevent the baby will has birth defects of will be sick at later age...