Does moderate drinking affect fertility?

Baileydog2011

I'm not talking about being worried about drinking in the 2WW. Has your doctor said drinking moderately (a glass or two of wine most days) is ok? Just curious if that can affect fertility. 

 

Thanks ladies! 

melgeorge7189

According to my RE, drinking is bad for men and smoking for women.  She told me to keep it under five drinks a week if I can, but that's for blood sugar reasons more than anything. I will tell you that I used to drink more than necessary and now drink max five per week for about six months, and it hasn't made me any more fertile.  My husband, however, after cutting down to two to three per week just for the last two months, has tripled his sperm count numbers and went from below normal to above. HTH!

ball.and.chain

I don't think there's a clear-cut answer on this one.  When I went to my midwife consult before I started TTC, my midwife recommended I stop drinking.  I wasn't a big drinker -- a glass of wine with dinner a few times a week at most -- so she wasn't talking about excessive drinking, but any drinking at all.  Her explanation was that there is some evidence that alcohol has a negative effect on fertility.  I honestly thought it was kind of extreme, but I did stop -- mostly because I am TTC with frozen donor sperm, and it's so expensive (plus less effective than fresh sperm) that I felt that I needed to do everything I could to improve my odds.  I had a glass of wine on my anniversary, and on Christmas, and champagne on NYE, but that's all I've had in 6 months.

I recently switched to an RE, and she didn't say anything about drinking.  However, the health questionnaire I had to fill out did ask how many drinks I had per week and I put down 0, so it's possible she would have said something if it applied to me.  In other words I have no idea what her take is on drinking and fertility.

Either way -- I'm not pregnant yet!  But I haven't been trying that long either.

I suspect there are studies out there if you want to read them, but I have never bothered.  I do miss wine but it's not that big a deal to me.

CP0979

melgeorge7189:

According to my RE, drinking is bad for men and smoking for women.  She told me to keep it under five drinks a week if I can, but that's for blood sugar reasons more than anything. I will tell you that I used to drink more than necessary and now drink max five per week for about six months, and it hasn't made me any more fertile.  My husband, however, after cutting down to two to three per week just for the last two months, has tripled his sperm count numbers and went from below normal to above. HTH!

 

Wow that's the second post I've seen where sperm count can be drastically affected by drinking.