Alcohol and the Affects on Fertility
photo credit: stephen-oung
Most everyone should know by now that drinking alcoholic beverages during pregnancy can be bad for the baby. But did you know that drinking while you are trying to conceive can be harmful as well? Men and women who drink heavily can take much longer to conceive than couples who drink little to none. It’s recommended that couples trying to conceive drink a maximum of one glass per day.
Now that’s the recommended amount.
Personally, I would say give it up all together. Why? Well, for one alcohol affects your blood sugar quite drastically. Which in turn effects your endocrine system and too much can throw your hormones out of balance. Especially if you love those girlie drinks like margaritas and mudslides. Full of sugar! When your body is overloaded with sugar, it depletes itself of other vital nutrients (like vitamin B) while trying to digest it.
Yadda, yadda, yadda, and the ball starts rolling…..
A couple other reasons include, that with women, alcohol may actually prevent the production of progesterone, which is vital to ensuring a pregnancy is carried to term. In men, it reduces the levels of sperm-making hormones which can actually wipe out a sperm count for three months after a heavy drinking session.
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About donielle
Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles (with another babe in heaven) after dealing with infertility. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility will be available in June 2012. She also runs a local blog (Grand Rapids Natural Living) and is active the local community in order to provide the area with resources and information for natural families.
I don’t drink, so this one is easy for me. However, I think a time of trying to conceive is very stressful especially if waiting months and months. If someone told me “no chocolate” while trying to conceive. I think I would go with once in a long while or maybe on my periods! There is also the other factor of drinking alcohol before you know that you are pregnant! THAT can be super stressful too.
-Andrea
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Ahh, yes. I indulged in sugar and chocolate a plenty when good ‘ol Aunt Flo came to town.
I normally don’t drink very often anyways, so I guess it’s an easy thing for me to give up as well. Although I’ll do wine on special occasions when I know FOR SURE I’m not pregnant. And since I normally don’t find out until I’m 5 or 6 weeks along, I’m usually not FOR SURE very often.
So basically – no drinking for me!
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We don’t have any kids yest, but my husband and I are taking a few months to prepare for conception, especially to really focus on our health. I am completely giving up alcohol, but I don’t drink much so that isn’t too much of a hardship. (I too think giving up chocolate would be a lot harder!) He is going down to just one drink anytime that we are at an event where he would normally drink (like a backyard bbq, once every few weeks). I don’t know how much of a difference it will make, but it isn’t much work for a lot of peace of mind so we think it is worth it.
I am a frequent reader and normally comment under my actual name but prefer to be anonymous this time as my hubby doesn’t want the www to know we are “trying.”
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Anonymous – you’re right, it isn’t that much work for peace of mind! And best wishes on conceiving!
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Donielle, I would love for my husband to stop drinking to see if that would improve his numbers any. Do you have a link to the study that you are referencing? A post on a blog won’t convince him, but a published article or study might.
I stopped drinking any alcohol for a long time when we first started trying. Then after not getting pregnant, I started drinking occasionally at parties and get-togethers.
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Spinner – The stats on womens fertility came from the British Medical Journal in 1998. The info on men is from Anthony Harsh, an andrologist at Whipps Cross Hospital in the U.K..
Both have been referenced on line and in books I've read quite often.
The medical journals are listed here:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
/tocrender.fcgi?journal=3&action=archive
(I broke the link to fit it in)but I don't know which specific one it's in.
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I don’t drink, but my husband does. We have been trying to concieve for almost a year. He drinks heavily,had a vasectomy reversal two years ago. I have told him,pleaded with him many times regarding the effects of drinking and ability to concieve…but he just doesn’t seem to get that it matters….do you have any resources/info on how to deal with the situation better…As the months go by, I am finding myself much more tense,stress which isn’t helping the situation. I should say, I try to eat a relatively clean diet full of healthy fats/proteins….I am working on kicking the one cup of coffee a day….but past that…stick to alot of whole foods….no sugar/processed food. Thanks on any insights.
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donielle Reply:
February 24th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
@anonomous, You know – my husband doesn’t always eat like I’d like him to. So my theory is that I’ll try and get as much ‘good’ into him as I can! A lot of times we just don’t listen to those closest to us….which always feels very hurtful, so I’m sorry you have to deal with it. So I guess, feed him really good foods, see if he’ll take supplements, and pray.
So sorry he’s not on board with you!But also know that there isn’t usually just ONE reason for infertility, though it is hard not to judge.
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Thanks so much for your insights. It is nice to share and get support. I will certainly continue to try and improve both of us. thanks again for such a great site.
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