What are the chances of a male having birthdefects as a direct result of him useing

[bennyboy8580]

To clarify my question is;

What are the chances of me impregnating a girl and the child being born with birth defects as a result from me abusing crack heavily in my late-teens/early-twenties?


Just a quick recap of my drug use as of late: I got involved with crack when i was about 18 or so i am now 21, used unoccaisonally for about a year then got really heavy in to it for about a year then went back to useing unoccaisonally/occaisonally im at the point now where i am nearly 80% clean for about 3 months. Im about to quit for good i know i am ready.

 

[T. Calderone]

I have no statistics or articles to back this up, but I'd say very small chance. I've known several women and men who actively used heroin and crack during conception and during pregnancy. This was during the 80's before they did drug tests on pregnant women. Babies were all born to term, good weight and healthy.

The babies were fine, and the one lady went on methadone for her heroin addiction so her baby needed extra care in the neonatal unit. But turned out to be a completely normal baby. What I say is all anecdotal, so you may have to do some research on this.

 

[nAON]

New sperm are generated constantly, if you'd abused chemicals enough to permanently mutate testicle germline you'd be covered in tumours by now. I'd be more worried about the detrimental social/psychological effects of having parents that abuse drugs in a developing infant.

 

[ChipTrippyFox]

Drug use doesn't change your dna. If any reproductive issues occur, it's more likely sterilization will occur than birth defects.

Like the first response though, I don't have anything to back this up; just giving my 2 cents