Alcohol and ttc

[Sandy Bee]

I'm interested in how/if/when alcohol affects the chance of conceiving so I had a look on scientific articles on the topic. I found 2 studies looking at the time around ovulation (and 2ww).

I'm sure there are others, and one shouldn't fully trust a single study on their own, but I thought some of you might find it interesting. Please post if you have other data.



Spontaneous abortion (both chemical and later ones):


Female drinking during cd 14-21 --> increased the risk of spontaneous abortion 2-3 times if they had 10 or more drinks this week

Male alcohol intake during cd 14-21 --> increased the risk of spontaneous abortion 2-5 times if they had 10 or more drinks this week.


Other factors that influenced unsuccessful pregnancy:

Females: old age (older than 28 yrs), long cycles (longer than 33 days), caffeine intake.

Males: Nothing they tested (Smoking, caffeine and BMI no influence)


This study was published 2004 by Henriksen et al., in Am J Epi. They studied 430 Danish couples between 20-35 yrs


Impaired ovulation:

A study from 2009 (Chavarro et al., in Epidemiology) followed 18,555 women and they found no influence of alcohol and caffeine intake on impaired ovulation.

They did find a relationship between soft-drinks and impaired ovulation, but they don’t know why.

 

[Sandy Bee]

All in all, I will try to refrain from alcohol, caffeine and soft-drinks during my 2ww.

 

[Jayjay027]

Yeah good idea!
It can be difficult though! Next week will be the start of my 2ww, but my best friend is having an engagement party next weekend, and I dont know how I can tell her why Im not drinking, because she knows herself that I like to have a wine or 2 when Im out.
But Im not telling anyone that we're TTC, because I think it will add to the pressure.

Surely 2 glasses of wine will be ok?

 

[Sandy Bee]

I have the exact same problem - I can't say no. The summer has been full of 'evenings with a glass of white wine'.

(i'm sure 2 glasses are fine)

 

[mrsblue]

Yep, totally in the same situation - I went out last night with friends and "accidentally" had 2 glasses of wine. It's really hard to stop people topping up your glass without raising suspicion/making a big deal out of it... I've tried to stick to wine spritzers but not sure how much that helps!