Game World!: can black coffee prevent pregnancy?

Can Coffee Avoid Pregnancy

For most couples, deciding to conceive a child is a conscious decision. You’ve daydreamed about your little one, possible even thought about names, taken a look at your finances, and maybe you’ve even shared your decision with a few close family members, or friends. As the possibility of becoming pregnant takes shape, you very likely have made some lifestyle choices to ensure you’re at your optimum health.

Women who make a concerted effort to adopt healthier lifestyle choices may find giving up certain vices difficult, but necessary. The wine glasses go into the cupboard, with a sigh, and your favorite sushi restaurant is off limits for a while. Are these really necessary? Probably not. But what about coffee, or your favorite caffeinated beverages? Should you limit your caffeine intake, or halt it altogether?

HOW CAFFEINE IMPACTS YOUR ABILITY TO CONCEIVE

The evidence that caffeine affects your fertility in a negative way is sparse, at best. A study done in 1988 suggests that drinking more than the equivalent of caffeine found in 1 cup of coffee (roughly 85 mg) cuts a woman chances for conception by 50%. No other study since has been found to support this claim, and the results of other similar studies show a more complicated relationship between caffeine consumption and fertility.

Women who consumed more than 300 mg of caffeine per day were found to be just as likely to conceive a child as those who drank 100 mg, or less, or consumed no caffeine at all. Women who drank 2 or more cups of tea per day were found to actually be more likely to conceive as those who did not. And, finally, women who consumed soda had the lowest rates of fertility in the study, with the lowest rates being those drinking more than 3 sodas per day.

What are the implications of these findings? Well, you can’t automatically say sodas prevent pregnancy, or tea promotes conception. It’s much more complicated than that. Tea drinkers, on average, have healthier lifestyles, eat a cleaner diet, and soda drinkers may consume more processed foods. Overall, lifestyle seems to have a bigger impact on your fertility than caffeine alone.

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CAFFEINE HAS AN IMPACT ON PREGNANCY

While studies offer conflicting evidence when it comes to caffeine and your fertility, it’s wise to limit your consumption of caffeine when you’re actively trying to become pregnant. Excessive caffeine has been linked to an increased risk of miscarriage, especially in early pregnancy, and consuming high levels of caffeine can result in low birth weight babies.

Caffeine is also a known stimulant, which is why most people can’t face the day without their morning “dose”. The jolt you experience in alertness, attributed to caffeine, also causes your blood pressure to spike. If you already deal with elevated blood pressure, you may be at risk for pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition of pregnancy.

CAFFEINE AFFECTS MEN AS WELL

While a few cups of coffee, tea, or cola aren’t known to have an impact on the father’s fertility, caffeine in excessive amounts, such as that found in 4-6 cups of coffee per day (400 mg) or more can lower sperm counts. Regular doses of caffeine in high amounts can also affect the quality of the sperm, so it’s best for dad-to-be to limit his caffeine intake.

HOW TO CUT THE CAFFEINE

If the very thought of facing your day without a jolt of caffeine makes you crazy, look into other ways to feel energized and ready for whatever comes your way. Try meditation after you wake up. Yoga can help clear your mind, and a clear mind is easier to focus. Need a mid-day “pick me up”? Try some sparkling water, or a non-caffeinated tea, such as rooibos (excellent for boosting your immune system) or soothing chamomile.

If you’ve been enjoying caffeinated beverages awhile, you’ll very likely experience withdrawal, typically in the form of a headache. You’ll be tempted to take something to squelch your pain, but try to limit your use of pain relievers. If you are actively trying to become pregnant, you should only use acetaminophen (the main ingredient in Tylenol), and stay away from ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and aspirin.

All in all, cutting caffeine, and making healthy lifestyle choices, is a responsible endeavor. Making the decision to do what’s best for your baby’s health, as well as your own, already makes you an excellent parent.

“Do I really have to give up coffee now that I’m trying to get pregnant?” Patients ask me this question a lot and here’s how I usually answer it. If you’re trying to get your body healthy in order to conceive it makes sense to limit your coffee intake to one cup a day. However, if getting pregnant is proving to be a struggle or you are suffering from infertility it’s best to cut coffee out altogether.

I love a cup of coffee myself and I’m similar to my patients in that I’m an over-scheduled New Yorker and I appreciate the energy lift coffee can give me, so I understand this may be easier said than done. However, even as I guiltily sip my latte as I write this, I know that this caffeine boost is false energy and no replacement for proper rest and good nutrition.

Coffee Intake During Pregnancy Dr Nitika Sobti

We all know that caffeine can increase stress and anxiety levels but for people trying to conceive, but coffee has other consequences as well. Caffeine can decrease the flow of blood to the uterus, which can interfere with implantation. Too much caffeine can increase the risk of blood clotting and miscarriage.

Knowing that caffeine can cause fertility problems some of my patients switch to decaffeinated coffee in order to enhance their fertility. However, all coffee, be it regular or decaf, is acidic and can make the body’s and cervical mucus too acidic and so hamper conception. Several studies have shown that coffee (even decaffeinated coffee) can diminish fertility. One Dutch study showed that 4 cups of decaf or regular coffee a day lowered a woman’s* chance of having a baby by 25%. Some studies have linked coffee to miscarriage and some have linked it to low sperm count.

So if you’re trying to conceive and nothing’s working, it may be time to ditch your daily cup of coffee.

HERE’S THE ADVICE WE GIVE OUR YINOVA PATIENTS WHO ARE TRYING TO LIMIT THEIR COFFEE INTAKE

If you are suffering physical symptoms due to coffee withdrawal, acupuncture can help. Caffeine constricts the blood vessels in the brain and decreases circulation. If you suddenly cut out coffee, the increase in circulation both to your brain and your digestive system can lead to headaches as well as constipation or loose stools. A treatment can treat both these symptoms well and so help you navigate your first coffee-free week.

Herbal tonics such as astragalus or ginseng can help give your body a boost as you adjust to living without caffeine.

Try drinking black tea. Even though tea contains some caffeine it does not seem to have the same adverse effect on fertility as coffee. In fact, some studies have shown that tea may even help fertility. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program of Northern California in Oakland found that women* who drink tea, even caffeinated black tea, have increased fertility. Black tea contains some caffeine so it can give you a bit of a boost, however, the caffeine content is much less than coffee making it a great alternative.

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Go green. Not only does green tea contain even less caffeine (about 1/3 of the amount) but it also boasts numerous health benefits.

Herbal teas are also worth considering. Yinova has an Energy Boosting Blend that can act as a caffeine-free pick me up. Experiment with different teas at different times of the day. A soothing cup of chamomile at night or a bright-tasting mint tea first thing in the morning.

Take a coffee-free break! Coffee drinkers enjoy the rituals around their regular cups of coffee as much as the coffee itself. So try to find a replacement for making a cup of coffee in the morning. Buy a pretty teapot and sip tea from a china cup. If popping out to your favorite coffee shop is a wonderful break in your day, know that you don’t have to give this up along with the coffee. Give yourself permission to take a coffee-free break and go out and buy some tea or even a bottle of water.

* Language used in the study referenced.

From coffee to tea to kombucha, caffeine is found in many popular drinks. And if you’re anything like us, it would be a huge sacrifice to give up that morning cup of Joe (#coffeeislife).

CAFFEINE AND PREGNANCY: Is Caffeine Safe To Use When You Are Trying To Conceive Or Pregnant?

However, the important question is…

Do you actually need to cut the caffeine when trying to conceive?

Luckily, when we dug into the available data, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that a few (small-sized) cups of coffee might not be as detrimental to your fertility as one would imagine.

But before you reach for your third cup of coffee, there are a few important things you should know about the effects of caffeine on your reproductive health.

Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll discover:

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Why Caffeine Causes Concern for Pregnancy

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What the Fertility Research Reveals

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Choosing Your Source Carefully

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Caffeine and Male Factor Infertility

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Total Consumption Beyond Your Coffee

Why Caffeine Causes Concern for Pregnancy

One of the biggest reasons the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggests limiting caffeine intake to < 200 mg/day is the associated risk of higher levels of intake with an increased risk for miscarriage during pregnancy.

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Data pulled together from over 25 studies suggests that caffeine consumption of 300 mg/day is associated with a 37% increased risk for spontaneous abortion.

And when this amount increases to 600 mg/day, the risk increases 2.5 fold compared with no intake at all. Clearly, there is a dose-response at play here.

When looking into the matter more closely, it appears that certain women may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of caffeine when it comes to maintaining a healthy pregnancy…

Based on the results of a case-control study (a study that compares 2 different groups to one another), it appears that women with a certain genetic polymorphism (CYP1A2) are more likely to experience recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) than those without this gene mutation.

Aside from the potential risk of miscarriage, higher maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy has been associated with a higher risk of delivering low birth weight infants. This correlation was originally noted back in 2014 and then again in 2020 with a meta-analysis of 15 cohort studies.

Now for those of you wondering about caffeine before pregnancy (i.e., preconception), a study published in Lancet back in 1998 initially created a lot of negative buzz over caffeine’s impact on female fertility. In that study, women who consumed more than one cup of coffee per day were half as likely to conceive as those who drank less.

Of course, as you know, the results from one study should not lead us to a definitive conclusion. More on this in just a moment…

Bottom line: Caffeine can have a negative impact on your reproductive health once pregnant, but there’s more to consider surrounding its effect on your initial efforts to conceive.

What the Current Research Reveals

When reviewing the evidence surrounding caffeine and fertility, it’s helpful to break things down according to the impact on couples trying to get pregnant naturally versus couples undergoing fertility treatment.

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Getting pregnant naturally

In the same meta-analysis we referenced regarding spontaneous abortion (SAB) risk, researchers failed to find an association between caffeine consumption and fertility outcomes. Additionally, no clear connection was found between caffeine and time to pregnancy.

In a separate prospective study of over 7000 Danish women, neither the consumption of caffeine nor the relative amount consumed affected those who were diagnosed with primary infertility.

Similar findings were also noted in another prospective study published in Epidemiology when looking at over 18,000 women without a prior history of infertility. In this study, researchers noted that caffeine consumption “did not impair ovulation to the point of decreasing fertility.”

Women undergoing fertility treatments

During the past decade, the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) has increased worldwide. Luckily for us, the research investigating modifiable lifestyle factors (such as caffeine intake) and ART outcomes among women facing infertility has grown too.

A recent review article summarized the impact of caffeine intake on reproductive outcomes from women undergoing ART. Of the five epidemiologic studies that medically reviewed this topic, only one study found a negative effect of caffeine intake on live birth following ART. The other studies in the review failed to find any negative effects that caffeine places on fertility outcomes among women undergoing ART.

Additional data echoes the conclusion that moderate caffeine intake by women in the year prior to ART has not been associated with negative outcomes.

There is one study that’s somewhat interesting and stands out. When researchers looked at a group of 1,708 women undergoing various fertility treatments (IVF/ICSI/IUI), coffee consumption did not seem to affect the chance of achieving a clinical pregnancy or giving birth to a baby.

Surprisingly, women treated with IUI who consumed coffee on a daily basis were more likely to achieve a clinical pregnancy and live birth compared to coffee abstainers.

Important considerations about the research

Before you go off and change your caffeine consumption, it’s important to keep in mind that researching the impact of lifestyle choices is a little complicated.

Why?

Well, most of these studies are performed on data gathered from real-life situations. And as we know, real life is not black and white. Meaning, researchers could not control for everything women ate or drank or the accuracy of the information reported.

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Never mind the fact that one person’s cup of coffee may look quite different from someone else’s and that the strength of the cup might vary as well.

Bottom line: The current evidence regarding caffeine intake and fertility outcomes may not be as alarming as it was initially thought.

Choosing Your Source Carefully

Sugar filled coffee can negatively affect fertility treatment when trying to get pregnant

Although caffeine may not impact fertility outcomes as much as once thought, sugar-filled caffeinated beverages still pose a reason for concern.

Data suggests that a higher intake of sugary soda is associated with lower total, mature, and fertilized oocytes and top-quality embryos after ovarian stimulation.

Outcomes from one study found that when compared to women who those who abstained, those who consumed sugar-containing caffeinated beverages had on average:

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1.1 fewer oocytes retrieved

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1.2 fewer mature oocytes retrieved

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0.6 fewer fertilized oocytes

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0.6 fewer fertilized oocytes

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0.6 fewer top-quality embryos

In the end, the authors conclude that sugary beverages, independent of their caffeine content, maybe a bigger threat to reproductive success and the risk for infertility than caffeinated beverages without added sugar.

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If you’re reluctant to switch your soft drinks to another caffeine source, here’s another potentially motivating fact for you… Researchers have found that women who drank ≥ 2 servings of tea per day were more likely to conceive than those who did not.

Caffeine and Male Factor Infertility

For those of you willing to cut the caffeine, you might be wondering to yourself…

“What about the man in this equation? Should he be cutting back on caffeine too?”

Well, caffeine and male fertility appear to have an even bigger question mark when it comes to getting pregnant.

Since coffee is often lumped into the category of other bad habits like cigarette smoking and recreational drug use, it’s often recommended that men simply abstain from caffeine intake when trying to conceive.

However, data suggests that this sort of recommendation is not as clear-cut as many would believe. Based on the results from a systematic review of 28 papers that included almost 20,000 men, here are some findings to consider:

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Caffeine intake is associated with sperm DNA breaks, but not with other markers of DNA damage.

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Most semen parameters are not affected by caffeine intake, at least not from the caffeine in coffee, tea, and cocoa-containing drinks.

Caffeine in Pregnancy - What is Safe? | Sarah Lavonne

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Caffeine of sugar-sweetened soda negatively impacts semen volume, sperm count, and sperm concentration.

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Coffee drinking among men has been associated with prolonged time to pregnancy in some, but not all, studies.

The take-home message should be that blanket statements regarding caffeine and male fertility are not feasible at this time. Caffeine may play a role in some fertility parameters, but not all.

When it comes to caffeine consumption among men, what they should likely focus their attention on is reducing sugar-containing caffeinated beverages like soda or energy drinks. Similar to the data for women, caffeinated soda and energy drink intake is associated with reduced fecundability among males.

Total Consumption Beyond Your Coffee

When deciding whether or not to reduce your caffeine consumption, it’s first important to determine how much caffeine you’re actually consuming.

CAN I DRINK COFFEE DURING PREGNANCY | How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?

Just how much caffeine is in a standard cup of coffee?

How about that 12-ounce can of soda?

Here are some basic estimates regarding the caffeine content of various beverages:

Coffee:

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Brewed (8 oz.) = 95 – 200 mg

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Regular instant (8 oz.) = 27 – 173 mg

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Expresso (1 -2 oz.) = 45 – 75 mg

Tea:

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Black tea, brewed (8 oz.) = 40 – 60 mg

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Green tea, brewed (8 oz.) = 25 – 45 mg

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Bottled ready-to-drink (8 oz.) = 5 – 65 mg

Soft drinks:

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Coke (16 oz.) = 45 mg

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Pepsi (16 oz.) = 45 mg

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Dr. Pepper (12 oz.) = 41 mg

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Mountain Dew, regular (12 oz.) = 54 mg

Is it safe to have black coffee early morning on a empty stomach? - Ms. Sushma Jaiswal

Consumption of different caffeine sources that can affect fertility when trying to get pregnant

Make sure to take a close look at the caffeine content in your favorite beverages and tally up the total amount you’re getting throughout the day!

Final Thoughts

Regardless of all the buzz around the topic, caffeine intake – in the appropriate amount – does not appear to cause significant fertility problems when trying to conceive.

Hopefully, you picked up that the exception to caffeine consumption is sugary beverages – those should most definitely be avoided for optimal reproductive health. Otherwise, recommendations for caffeine intake should be made on a case-by-case basis.

Women at risk for miscarriage should definitely limit or avoid caffeine altogether. And once a confirmed pregnancy is established, follow expert guidelines and limit your intake to 200 mg of caffeine per day.

And if you simply can’t kick your full-strength latte habit, try a half-caffeinated cup of coffee or a cup of herbal tea. Testing out these options may satisfy your craving without loading your body up with the stimulant you may be wanting to limit.

With Love & Empowerment,

Lauren Manaker, MS, RDN, LD

Whenever you’re ready, we’re here to help you remove fertility-threatening foods from your diet so you too can increase your chances of getting pregnant.

I love my morning wake-me-up coffee. But I'm pregnant — can I still have my morning cup of coffee?

– Dipti

Check with your doctor about having caffeine during your pregnancy. One cup of coffee is usually OK, but it's best to not have more than that. It's hard to know exactly how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee. The total can depend on things like the brand of coffee and the size of the cup.

Studies show that getting more than 150–200 milligrams (about 1–2 cups of coffee) of caffeine a day during pregnancy may not be healthy. High amounts of caffeine during pregnancy has been linked to problems with a baby's growth and development.

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To help you cut back on caffeine:

First, limit coffee to one or two cups a day.

Start mixing decaffeinated coffee with regular coffee.

Then, stop drinking the caffeinated coffee.

Don't forget that caffeine also can be in:

other foods and drinks, such as tea, chocolate, and energy drinks

some medicines

If you’re anything like me, I cannot get through the day without my morning latte.

Some days I even need two if I’ve had a bad sleep or have a long day ahead of me!

But there are a lot of mixed messages out there in the media about caffeine (which by the way isn’t just found in coffee!) and your chances of conceiving.

Don’t stress, I’m here to help set the record straight (and as a coffee lover, I most definitely have your back when it comes to the coffee habit!)

coffee-caffeine-fertility-trying-to-conceive

CAFFEINE AND THE EFFECT ON FERTILITY

I have written a blog about all things caffeine (head here to check it out!).

In a nutshell, caffeine is a compound that is found mainly in:

Coffee beans

Tea including black, green, matcha, oolong and white teas

Chocolate or cocoa products

Energy drinks

Soft drinks or sodas, like cola.

It is a plant-based compound that stimulates the central nervous system to cause a burst in energy.

But how (if, at all) does it affect your chances of falling pregnant?

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Currently, there isn’t a strong body of scientific evidence supporting the effects of caffeine on conception.

Some studies have found links between caffeine and reduced fertility, whereas others have found no links. Let’s dive into a few of these studies!

couple-caffeine-trying-to-conceive-fertility

One study found that caffeine consumption has been linked to reduced estrogen levels which can prevent ovulation and reduce your chances of conceiving (Schliep et al., 2012).

Another study has found that interestingly, caffeine can affect the way the muscles in the fallopian tubes contract (Dixon et al., 2011). The study was done in mice, however, they found that caffeine can stop some of the cells lining the walls of the fallopian tubes from functioning properly, and as a result, it is harder for the embryo to be transferred from the fallopian tubes to the uterus.

This can help to explain why some women who consume a lot of caffeine can find it harder to fall pregnant quickly!

However, a recent meta-analysis (a really big study of a lot of literature!) found that there is not a strong association between caffeine consumption and fecundity (i.e. fertility), or time to pregnancy (Lyngs et al., 2017).

Large studies have shown NO strong association between caffeine and fertility

An Italian study looked at the link between caffeine and outcomes of IVF, and found that a moderate intake of caffeine (~200mg per day) had no effect on the outcome of IVF treatments (Ricci et al., 2018).

So, what does this mean for you?

A DIETITIAN’S RECOMMENDATIONS ON CAFFEINE FOR FERTILITY

Coffee, Cafe, Table, Beverage, Cup, Food

So, you and your partner have decided to start trying but you have a serious tea, coffee or soft drink habit and wondering what you have to get to? Then listen up!

Should you quit caffeine when trying to conceive?

The current research supports the advice, that is recommended by the World Health Organisation, that it is safe for women trying to conceive to consume up to 2 cups of coffee per day, or less than 200-300 mg of caffeine per day. This is to prevent any effects that the literature suggests may occur during conception.

So what does 200mg of caffeine look like in our day-to-day lives?

COUNT YOUR CAFFEINE

Get out your notepad (or notes section on your phone) and let’s work out how much caffeine you’re getting in your day!

1 shot of espresso (a regular flat white from your local coffee shop) has on average 90-120 mg of caffeine

1 teaspoon of instant coffee has about 60mg of caffeine

1 cup of percolated coffee has about 100-125 mg of caffeine

Black tea has about 50 mg of caffeine

Green tea has about 30 mg of caffeine

60g of milk or dark chocolate can have up to 40 mg of caffeine

A 375ml can of coke has 30-40 mg of caffeine

Energy drinks can have over 110 mg of caffeine

I try to discourage those last two whilst you’re trying to conceive, as we know that sugary drinks are not ideal for fertility anyway, and it appears that caffeine from energy drinks has a negative effect on sperm health too!

Instead, I suggest keeping up your morning latte on the way to work (it’s the simplest things in life!) or after the gym or with your girlfriends on the weekend and then having a cup of tea, or a couple of squares of chocolate after dinner.

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tea-fertility-trying-to-conceive-caffeine

Just remember, most large coffees (in Australia) have 1.5-2 shots of espresso, so if you’re opting for a large coffee try decaf black tea or some yoghurt with fruit as your sweet after-dinner treat.

Always check with your barista how many shots of espresso are used in the coffee you are ordering to stay on the safe side!

Don’t forget, decaf coffee is perfectly safe to consume when trying to conceive, as you would have to have more than 60 cups of decaf coffee per day to reach your limit as it averages about 5 mg of caffeine per cup of decaf!

LOOKING TO WEAN YOURSELF DOWN WITH CAFFEINE-CONTAINING DRINKS?

Go slow to avoid caffeine withdrawals like headaches and fatigue, start by dropping one caffeinated drink out of your day for a week before reducing further.

Hydrate with something else like water, a low-calorie probiotic fermented drink like kombucha or a cold infusion tea for something a little different.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep, 7 hours is a minimum for most adults.

Swap the afternoon coffee run with your colleagues for a quick stroll around the block

Pregnant women who have two or more cups of caffeinated drinks a day have twice the risk of having a miscarriage than those who avoid caffeine, suggests a new study.

US researchers said on Monday that their study provides strong evidence that high doses of caffeine during pregnancy – 200 milligrams or more per day or the equivalent of two cups of coffee – significantly increase the risk of miscarriage.

They believe the research may finally put to rest conflicting reports about the link between caffeine consumption and miscarriage.

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“Women who are pregnant or are actively seeking to become pregnant should stop drinking coffee for three months or hopefully throughout pregnancy,” says De-Kun Li of US healthcare firm Kaiser Permanente, who led the study.

Chocolate risk

“There has been a lot of uncertainty about this,” says Li. “There was no firm advice from professional societies to say what a pregnant woman should do about caffeine intake.”

Li adds that between 15 to 18 studies have found a link between caffeine use during pregnancy and miscarriage. But that association has been clouded by the fact that many pregnant women avoid caffeine because it makes them nauseous, which could skew the results.

Li and colleagues controlled for that possibility in their study of 1063 pregnant women members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan in San Francisco, California, US, from October 1996 to October 1998. Women in the group did not change their caffeine consumption during pregnancy.

They found that women who consumed the equivalent of two or more cups of regular coffee, or five 12-ounce cans of caffeinated soda, were twice as likely to miscarry as pregnant women who avoided caffeine.

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This risk appeared to be related to the caffeine, rather than other chemicals in coffee, because the study also saw an increased risk when the caffeine was consumed in soda, tea, or hot chocolate.

Safe dose

Li notes many researchers think caffeine is harmful because it stresses the fetus’s immature metabolism. It may also decrease blood flow in the placenta, which could harm the fetus.

“To me, the safe dose is zero. If you really have to drink coffee, try to limit it to one cup or at the most two cups.” Or better yet, switch to decaffeinated beverages, Li adds.

Based on the findings, Tracy Flanagan, director of women’s health at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, says pregnant women should think about limiting coffee to one cup a day, and they might want to cut it out entirely.

“So many causes of miscarriage are not controllable,” she says. “This is an opportunity to do something active.”

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Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13206-coffee-can-double-risk-of-miscarriage/#ixzz7JLoBe2I1

When you’re about to embark on the journey of baby making, you might try to get your body in the healthiest state possible. While some changes are fairly obvious and universally encouraged in the childbearing years—like quitting smoking, eating healthy and exercising regularly—others are a bit conflicting.

woman sitting cross legged

6 ways to cope with infertility stressTake caffeine, for instance. A simple Google search brings up a multitude of info on everything from the many health benefits of coffee to how to limit your intake or cut it out entirely. As you enjoy your steaming cup of joe, you may wonder if your daily coffee habit is something you should nix before getting pregnant.

Can I drink coffee while trying to get pregnant?

According to Jeffrey Roberts, an OB-GYN and co-director of the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Burnaby, BC, while it is known that excessive amounts of caffeine can lead to lower birth weight and reduced blood flow through the placenta during pregnancy, less is understood about the effects of caffeine on fertility. “Caffeine can stimulate the nervous system, open up airways and constrict blood vessels,” he says, but there’s no evidence that this affects your chances of getting pregnant.

Roberts cites one study of European women that found that women who drank more than five cups of coffee a day took longer to conceive. But he says it’s possible that other habits associated with drinking coffee may have actually caused the delay in conceiving.

Based on research done on caffeine consumption during pregnancy, healthcare practitioners and Health Canada advise that drinking one to two cups of coffee (300 milligrams of caffeine) a day is safe for women when they’re expecting or trying to conceive. Of course, coffee isn’t the only source of caffeine: Tea, soda and chocolate also count toward your daily intake, with some sodas coming in at 64 milligrams of caffeine per can and three squares of 60 percent dark chocolate containing 42 milligrams of caffeine.

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Don’t cut out caffeine cold turkey

As you begin trying to conceive, it’s worthwhile to take an inventory of your daily diet and make any changes necessary to ensure that you’re consuming a safe amount of caffeine. But some women start cutting out caffeine entirely in hopes of helping their fertility. Roberts says that, in an effort to do everything in their power to improve their chances, some IVF patients cut out caffeine altogether—often because they’ve heard stories of others who did so and got pregnant. But Roberts doesn’t advise this. Skipping your daily caffeine hit can bring on nagging headaches, which can pose unnecessary and additional stress to your fertility treatments, he explains.

“They’re up early for ultrasounds and tests and they have a headache to boot because they’ve stopped drinking coffee,” he says. “I tell them they have to keep drinking some coffee. It’s all about balance.”

Though moderate caffeine consumption is unlikely to hurt your chances of getting pregnant, stress can have a real impact on fertility. Since quitting coffee cold turkey can cause stress, it hardly seems worth cutting out your daily cup.

And dads-to-be can keep drinking their coffee, too: There is no evidence that caffeine affects sperm.

So, go ahead and take a satisfactory sip of your morning cup of coffee. A cup or two won’t hurt your chances of getting pregnant.

A moderate reduction in caffeine intake in the second half of pregnancy has no effect on birth weight or length of gestation

Some like their coffee black, and some like it white, but whether it is wise to drink coffee in pregnancy is not a black and white issue. Many observational studies have suggested that it is unwise to drink coffee (or indeed any drink containing caffeine) during pregnancy. Some papers report that consumption of more than modest amounts of caffeine during pregnancy may increase the likelihood of infertility, birth defects, miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, fetal growth restriction, and cot death. Each such paper has spawned a flurry of further papers reporting a failure to find any such association. One recent review article cited more than 200 papers.1 The problem is that women who drink more coffee than most nearly always differ from other pregnant women in other ways too. They are more likely to smoke, for one thing, which makes it difficult to decide what is causing what.2

In this week's BMJ, we finally have an interventional study by Bech and colleagues3 showing that babies born to mothers who drink moderate amounts of coffee do not weigh less than those whose mothers' drink decaffeinated coffee in the second half of pregnancy (as 12 observational studies had previously suggested2).

Do's and don'ts during pregnancy, explained by a Gynaecologist

Caffeine crosses the placenta easily, and the speed with which it is then metabolised declines during pregnancy. Exposure to artificial boluses of caffeine can certainly damage the fetal rat, but only when the amount is 10 times higher than any human would ever ingest, even if they drank nothing but the most potent caffeinated beverage in a dose high enough to render them ill.1 A widely quoted paper in the Lancet in 1988 suggested that “women who consumed more than the equivalent of one cup of coffee per day were half as likely to become pregnant per cycle as women who drank less.”4 However, the nine studies that have since looked into this unexpected finding found little evidence to support this conclusion once other influences such as maternal age, smoking, and parity were taken into account.2

Early miscarriage is certainly more common in women who drink substantial amounts of coffee in early pregnancy.5 However, we do not know whether continuing high consumption puts the fetus at risk, or whether sustained consumption is simply a marker for a pregnancy that is already doomed, because an increased aversion to coffee is, along with nausea and vomiting, a consistent early feature of a healthy pregnancy.6 The report of a dose dependent relation between intake of caffeine before pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage suggests that a very high intake of caffeine prenatally may be unwise, but the adjusted odds ratio when the 186 women taking less than 75 mg a day were compared with the 230 taking more than 900 mg a day was only just significant (1.72; 95% confidence interval 1.00 and 2.96).7

Caffeine consumption does not make preterm birth more likely,2,8 and the only report of a link between consumption in late pregnancy and cot death could not be replicated.2 However, a paper in the BMJ in 2003 did report an excess of fetal death in the second half of pregnancy in Danish women who said at booking that they drank eight or more cups of coffee a day. So too did a subsequent study of women who said they drank four or more cups a day that used data from a national data set.9 A recent study in Uruguay, which did not fully adjust for smoking status, had similar findings.10

Estimating fetal exposure is more difficult than is thought because cup size and the way the drink is prepared vary more than is realised. The caffeine content of different brands of tea and coffee also varies, and these drinks are not the only important dietary sources of caffeine (table(table).11,12 In addition, the speed with which caffeine is cleared by the liver varies greatly. Clearance occurs more rapidly in smokers and is affected by a range of genetic polymorphisms affecting cytochrome P450 1A2.11

Common drinks and foods and their typical caffeine content

Drink or food Caffeine content

Cola and other “energy” drinks 12-60 mg/300 ml can

Bottled iced tea 15-25 mg/300 ml bottle

Brewed tea (non-herbal)* 20-50 mg/cup†

Mate (South American tea) 30-60 mg/cup

Decaffeinated coffee 4-8 mg/cup

Instant coffee 40-140 mg/cup

Brewed coffee 60-200 mg/cup

Chocolate 5-35 mg/50 g bar

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*Twenty per cent more than this for tea brewed for more than 3 minutes.

Sadhguru on Pregnancy & Motherhood

†Taken to be a 300 ml (∼10 fl oz) cup.

The US Food and Drug Administration has been advising women to avoid or limit their intake of caffeine in pregnancy since 1980, and the UK Food Standards Agency issued slightly more nuanced advice in 1984, which it updated in October 2001. The randomised controlled trial by Bech and colleagues3 should lead to revision of this advice, at least with regard to birth weight. But we now need a similar, larger trial to show whether observational studies are right in suggesting that a high intake of caffeine increases the risk of stillbirth.

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Notes

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: commissioned; not externally peer reviewed

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References

1. Christian MS, Brent RL. Teratogen update: evaluation of the reproductive and developmental risk of caffeine. Teratology 2001;64:51-78. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

2. Leviton A, Cowan L. A review of the literature relating caffeine consumption by women to their risk of reproductive hazards. Food Chem Toxicol 2002;40:1271-310. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

3. Bech BH, Obel C, Henriksen TB, Olsen J. Effect of reducing caffeine intake on birth weight and length of gestation: randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2007. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39062.520648.BE [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

4. Wilcox A, Weinberg C, Baird D. Caffeinated beverages and decreased fertility. Lancet 1988;ii:1453-6. [PubMed]

5. Signorello LB, McLaughlin JK. Maternal caffeine consumption and spontaneous abortion. A review of the epidemiologic evidence. Epidemiology 2004;15:229-39. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

6. Lawson CC, LeMasters GK, Wilson KA. Changes to caffeine consumption as a signal of pregnancy. Reprod Toxicol 2004;18:625-33. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

7. Tostrup JS, Kjær SK, Munk C, Madsen LB, Ottesen B, Bergholt T, et al. Does caffeine and alcohol intake before pregnancy predict the occurrence of spontaneous abortion? Hum Reprod 2003;18:2704-10. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

8. Chiaffarino F, Parazzini F, Chatenoud L, Ricci E, Tozzi L, Chiantera V, et al. Coffee drinking and risk of preterm birth. Eur J Clin Nutr 2006;60:610-3. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

9. Bech BH, Nohr EA, Vaeth M, Henriksen TB, Olsen J. Coffee and fetal death: a cohort study with prospective data. Am J Epidemiol 2005;162:983-90. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

10. Matijasevich A, Barros FC, Santos IS, Yemini A. Maternal caffeine consumption and fetal death: a case-control study from Uruguay. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 2006;20:100-9. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

11. Grosso LM, Bracken MB. Caffeine metabolism, genetics, and perinatal outcomes: a review of exposure assessment considerations in pregnancy. Ann Epidemiol 2005;15:460-6. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

12. Weinberg BA, Bealer BK. The world of caffeine: the science and culture of the world's most popular drug. London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2002.

Could the caffeine in your morning cup of coffee affect your fertility? As long as you're not consuming high amounts, it's unlikely to harm your chances of getting pregnant.1 However, you still might want to consider limiting your overall intake.

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A morning cup of coffee or tea is practically a tradition in the Western world. Many people are therefore interested in research looking at a possible connection between caffeine, fertility, and miscarriage rates.

For people hoping to boost their natural fertility, giving up caffeine could be a doable goal. That said, some people would find it difficult to get through the day without a caffeine boost. They might have feelings of guilt and worry if they are trying to get pregnant and are concerned that caffeine could be affecting their chances.

Here's what the research says about caffeine and fertility, as well as some of the recommendations for daily caffeine intake if you're hoping to get pregnant.

Research on Caffeine and Fertility

The worry over caffeine and fertility started after a 1988 study reported that women who drank about a cup of coffee per day were half as likely to conceive.2 While the study has been frequently cited in the last several decades, no subsequent study has been able to replicate those findings.1

One of the largest prospective studies on the subject included just over 3,000 Danish women. Researchers looked at fertility rates in relation to coffee, tea, and soda intake. The result of the study found that:

Women who consumed more than 300 mg of caffeine per day (more than 1 cup of coffee) had similar fertility rates compared to women who drank less than 100 mg to none per day.

Women who drank two or more servings of tea per day were slightly more likely to conceive than those who drank no tea.

Women who drank soda were less likely to conceive in any given month than women who didn’t drink soda. Women who drank three servings of soda per day had worse fertility rates than women who drank one soda serving per day.3

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You might be wondering if these findings suggest that you should start drinking tea to conceive faster or completely cut out soft drinks. But it’s more complicated than that.

Researchers don’t really know why the tea drinkers saw increased fertility and the soda drinkers saw decreased fertility in that particular study.

Another study published in 2017 gathered data from published research papers to look at the potential dose-related effect of caffeine or coffee on time to pregnant for both couples trying to conceive naturally and couples undergoing fertility treatment. They also looked at the risk for miscarriage based on how many milligrams of caffeine was consumed. The study's results showed that:

Drinking 300 mg of caffeine increased the risk of early pregnancy loss or spontaneous abortion (SAB).

Drinking 600 mg of caffeine more than doubled the risk of miscarriage.

Caffeine did not, however, impact the time it took for couples trying to conceive naturally to get pregnant.

Caffeine intake also did not seem to negatively impact pregnancy rates for couples receiving fertility treatments.1

Is Caffeine the Real Problem?

Studying the impact lifestyle choices have on fertility is complex. You can’t exactly take a bunch of people, keep them in a lab to control everything they eat and drink, and see how quickly they conceive. Studies rely on accurate reporting and recall. Research on fertility rates and caffeine often ask women to report how much coffee they drank before they conceived.4

The ideal fertility study would follow a group of people as they try to conceive, and ask them what they are drinking now (or recently) until they conceive (or don't).

However, even studies such as these would pose potential issues. For example, these studies may exclude women who conceived quickly and thus never had a chance to “try to get pregnant.”5

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Another problem with caffeine studies is the dosages aren’t always consistent. A cup of coffee you make at home can have a completely different caffeine content than a latte from your local coffee shop. Even the exact same beverage at different coffee shops can have varying amounts of caffeine.

Something else to keep in mind when looking at the research on caffeine is that it's not clear whether it's the caffeine that can lead to problems with fertility or if there are other related lifestyle choices or habits that might be more likely to affect fertility.6

For example, people who smoke are more likely to drink a lot of coffee and alcoholic beverages. This could, in part, provide some explanation as to why earlier studies found strong negative fertility effects. Heavy coffee drinkers might also be smokers—and we do know that smoking hurts fertility.7

Another issue is that a high consumption of caffeine is more likely in people who are experiencing fatigue. Fatigue could signal an underlying disease or health condition that harms fertility, like endometriosis or even depression.

Know How Much You Consume

If you want to play it safe with caffeine, taking in no more than 200 to 300 mg of caffeine a day (ideally, 100 mg or less) is recommended.8 This is what reproductive endocrinologists currently recommend to couples struggling to conceive.

However, most of us don't think of our caffeine fix in terms of milligrams. We think in cups. How much caffeine is in a cup of coffee or tea? How about soft drinks or energy drinks? Here are some general guidelines.9

Coffee

Brewed (8 oz.) = 95 to 200 mg

Brewed, single-serve variety = 55 to 150 mg

Brewed, decaffeinated (8 oz.) = 1 to 25 mg

Regular instant (8 oz.) = 27 to 173 mg

Decaffeinated instant (8 oz.) = 2 to 12 mg

Expresso (1 -2 oz.) = 47 to 75 mg

Starbucks grande Caffé Latte (16 oz.) = 150 mg

Starbucks grande Dark Roast (16 oz.) = 240 mg

Starbucks grande Cold Brew (16 oz.) = 280 mg

Tea

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Black tea, brewed (8 oz.) = 40-60 mg

Black tea, decaffeinated (8 oz.) = <5 mg

Instant (8 oz.) = 5 mg

Bottled ready-to-drink (8 oz.) = 5 to 68 mg

Soft Drinks

Coke (16 oz.) = 45 mg

Pepsi (16 oz.) = 45 mg

Dr. Pepper (12 oz.) = 41 mg

Mountain Dew, regular (12 oz.) = 54 mg

Mountain Dew MDX (12 oz.) = 71 mg

Jolt cola (12 oz.) = 120 mg

Energy Drinks

5-hour Energy (2 oz.) = 215 mg

Monster Energy (24 oz.) = 276 mg

Red Bull (12 oz.) = 111 mg

Spike Shooter (8.4 oz.) = 300 mg

Cocoa, Chocolate, and Ice Cream

Cocoa from mix (8 oz.) = 5 mg

Milk chocolate (1.55 oz.) = 9 mg

Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate (1.45 oz.) = 31 mg

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Ice Cream (4 oz.) = 45 mg

A Word From Verywell

Studies have not found a definitive connection between caffeine and lowered fertility in men.10 While the current research does not clearly show a negative impact on fertility in women, the studies that have shown an effect find that less than 200 mg of caffeine does not present problems for most people. However, excessive caffeine might increase your risk of early miscarriage.1

Caffeine and pregnancy

If you're trying to get pregnant, you don't necessarily have to completely give up your morning cup of coffee and you don't need to feel guilty about it. The standard recommendation at most fertility clinics and from many OB-GYNs is to stick to one small cup of coffee a day.

It's not clear whether caffeine affects the chance of pregnancy.

Experts advise limiting caffeine if you're trying to conceive and during pregnancy.

Some studies have found that women who drink large amounts of caffeine may take longer to become pregnant and have a slightly higher risk of miscarriage and low birth weight.