Recent research conducted in the United Kingdom, UK, indicates that an overdose of coffee can reduce the chances of a woman with fertility problems getting pregnant. The researchers, from Radboud University in Nijmegan, the Netherlands, studied 9,000 women who had received in vitro fertilisation, IVF, to see if they get pregnant naturally. IVF is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the woman’s womb. About one in seven got pregnant but also indicated that drinking more than four cups of coffee a day cut the chances of conceiving by around 26 per cent. The findings, presented to a European conference, only applied to women with poor fertility who wanted to maximise their chances of pregnancy.
Bea Linsten, lead researcher, told the European Sociaty for Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Barcelona, Spain, that his team studied all women who had received IVF treatment in the Netherlands between 1985 and 1995. They found 16 per cent of the women conceived naturally and 45 per cent within six months of their last IVF treatment. Questionnaires were analysed to show how lifestyle factors affected a woman’s chances of pregnancy. It was also discovered that drinking alcohol at least three times a week carried the same risk as excessive caffeine intake.
Also, smoking more than one cigarette a day and being overweight reduced the chances of pregnancy even more. The researchers estimated that a 36-year-old woman who smoked, drink too much coffee and alcohol and was overweight, and who had been through three cycles of IVF , would have a 5 per cent chance of a natural pregnancy.
If she is not overweight, does not smoke or drink too much caffeine or alcohol, her chances would be 15 per cent. Linsten wants patients to maximise their chances of getting pregnant naturally by living a healthy life.” We have to remind our patients that they may influence their chance of spontaneous pregnancy after IVF with a healthy lifestyle,” he said.
Linus Okafor, a Lagos-based medical consultant, said that the findings should be examined with caution. He, however, agrees that caffeine could have a mild, but toxic effect on ovaries and sperm, which may increase poor fertility.
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