London, April 7: Smoking adds the equivalent of 10 years to the reproductive age of a 20-year-old woman seeking to have a baby by in-vitro fertilisation and has a ?devastating? impact on a couple?s chances of a successful delivery, scientists reported yesterday.

Dutch researchers found smoking reduced the technique?s success rate by about 30 per cent and increased the risk of suffering a miscarriage by almost a quarter.

The study into the success rate of first-cycle IVF treatment in more than 8,000 women in The Netherlands also revealed that being excessively overweight was linked with a reduction in the chance of having a baby of approximately a third.

Didi Braat, one of the study?s authors, from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, said: ?What our research clearly shows is that both smoking and being overweight unfavourably affect the live birth rate after IVF.

?Smoking has a devastating impact. It is comparable to adding a decade to the reproductive age of a 20-year-old. This means it makes her the equivalent of a 30-year-old non-smoker in reproductive terms.?