123. Caffeine, Alcohol & Fertility: What Actually Matters

How much does your morning coffee or weekend wine matter when trying to conceive? In this episode of Cycle Wisdom, Dr. Monica Minjeur unpacks the science behind caffeine and alcohol—and how both can impact ovulation quality, luteal phase strength, miscarriage risk, and sperm health. You’ll learn evidence-based limits for men and women, how timing matters just as much as quantity, and how to make changes without fear or perfectionism. This restorative approach helps protect hormones, improve sleep, and promote fertility—without unnecessary stress.
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Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Welcome back to Cycle Wisdom, where we empower women to restore natural menstrual cycles, to improve health and promote fertility. I'm your host, Dr. Monica Minjeur, and I'm so glad you're listening today. What if your morning latte or your weekend wine wasn't just a lifestyle choice, but was a lever that was nudging the quality of your ovulation? Or something that could improve your luteal phase or improve sperm health. Today I'm going to be talking about the evidence on caffeine and alcohol as it relates to fertility for both men and women. We're going to outline some practical limits that help to protect hormones and promote fertility without creating too much stress around the situation and giving you a clear path forward. So let's start out with a story about a patient, couple of mine, and we'll call them June and Aaron. Now, June typically had two strong coffees Most days espresso was her drink of choice. Aaron typically saw several clients on a weekly basis, and oftentimes went to dinners with them. So he frequently averaged one to two alcoholic drinks per night. Now June and Erin had been trying to conceive for about eight months by the time they came to see me. And at our very first appointment they asked me specifically about what they should think when it comes to alcohol and caffeine intake. They felt overwhelmed by mixed messages that they were receiving on social media. Sometimes they saw that coffee can kill eggs. Or that red wine can actually boost fertility, but beer wreck sperm. And they wanted some clear science-based guidance, not just to live in fear and not to have to cut out some of their favorite things on a consistent basis. So we started, as always, with reviewing June's charts, looking at their history and getting a better idea as to how much their caffeine and alcohol intake was playing a role. Again, as with most things, there's typically not just one thing that's causing an issue with fertility, and it oftentimes is anywhere up to six to eight things that can be playing a role. Now, June and Erin were highly motivated to make some changes with their lifestyle, but they wanted to really focus on things that would actually make a difference. So we started, as always, with a cycle timed evaluation of labs for June and a semen analysis for Erin, because that had not been done in the past. We talked through guidelines as far as caffeine and alcohol intake, and found that we were going to have follow up on both labs for both partners after a few months. This helped give a clear guidance as to what needed to happen and where the changes needed to take place when it came to caffeine and alcohol intake. So what advice did I give to June and Erin? And like so many things in medicine, this can be a really mixed picture. And so when we look at the research, let's start off with talking about caffeine in women. Now, findings are mixed. Some scientific research shows that higher amounts of caffeine intake for women will have lower pregnancy rates. And there are other studies that show no clear association with achieving pregnancy. However, high intake of caffeine is more consistently tied to an increased risk of miscarriage, especially in early pregnancy. So the practical advice that I typically will give my female patients when it comes to caffeine is to decrease or limit, but you don't necessarily need to completely eliminate caffeine from your world. Now, that will change a little bit. During the time of conception, and so I oftentimes will recommend during your luteal phase, or if you have already conceived, but maybe aren't aware yet, try and limit that so that we have less caffeine intake, and we'll talk about exact amounts in a little bit. When it comes to caffeine intake for men, the evidence is also mixed. Again, some studies show that very high caffeine intake can be associated with a lower sperm concentration or a lower sperm count, while other studies show no clear detriment with moderate intake of caffeine. Now there have been some systematic reviews completed that show the possibility of DNA damage for sperm pathways, although the results aren't consistent as you look across different ages and ethnicities and other background factors. So again, kind of a mixed story here. So for both men and women. Typically what we're telling our patients is moderation, not in excess, but don't feel like you have to cut it out completely. It's probably not going to be the rate limiting step in your ability to conceive. So let's look a little bit though as far as when it comes to alcohol, and that story is quite different, specifically depending upon if you are male or female. So for females, there are multiple studies that show that moderate to heavy alcohol consumption, especially during and after the time that you ovulate, does show a decreased chance of conceiving and that gets worse, the more heavy drinking that you do. Typically what this looks like from a number standpoint is that if you have six or more drinks per week during your luteal phase or the time of ovulation, you're going to significantly reduce your chances of conception. And even if you only have three to six drinks per week during your luteal phase or that time from ovulation until your next period starts, you also will decrease your chance of conceiving. So for women, the bottom line is if you are trying to conceive, absolutely wanting to avoid heavy alcohol use and consider cutting it out altogether. Or if you need to have a drink, no more than one drink per night. And again, definitely trying to avoid alcohol altogether after ovulation because you may not be aware that pregnancy has occurred yet. For men. Alcohol use seems to be a little bit variable depending upon the dose. So how much alcohol you take and the population in your background. Again, similar to women. Chronic or heavy alcohol intake does seem to cause more problems, and with men we can see this appear as decreased semen parameters decrease in the testosterone levels or other reproductive hormones, and notably moderate intake of alcohol and healthy men shows mixed benefits or minimal impacts. So similarly for men, the guidance I typically provide is limit your alcohol intake. Keep it low to moderate, and definitely avoid any binges because that can create big time problems long term. So let's translate this into practical guidance so that you can help understand what exactly how many ounces, how many cups, how many milligrams per day. And again, these are going to be based on the research evidence. So let's start with women for caffeine. The recommendation when trying to conceive is to aim for less than or equal to 200 milligrams. Per day. Now that's going to equate approximately to one 12 ounce regular coffee or two small cups. If you have concern for miscarriage risk or if you've had a miscarriage in the past, we recommend lowering that even further. Less than 100 or 150 milligrams of caffeine per. Or switch to half calf or even decaf. Again, timing your caffeine is very important. Ideally, trying to get caffeine intake prior to noon because again, we want to make sure that we are protecting good sleep quality. We know that if you have caffeine after noon time, you oftentimes will have more troubles with falling asleep, staying asleep, getting that deep, restful sleep and decreased sleep quality can lead to impaired hormone production. For more information on that, go back and check out episode 98 where I talk all about good quality sleep in regards to hormones. Now for women when it comes to alcohol, if you choose to drink, the recommendation is to keep to less than or equal to one alcoholic beverage per day, and specifically to avoid alcohol during your luteal phase. So from the time you've ovulated until you period starts. Or until you have that positive pregnancy test again, one drink of alcohol is going to be equivalent to one mixed drink or one shot of hard liquor. One beer that's 12 ounces or one glass of wine, typically six ounces. That's gonna be your one alcoholic beverage. And again, if you are not needing to drink, it is okay to consider abstaining altogether from alcohol while actively trying to conceive to decrease your exposure altogether. More importantly, time your labs chart your cycles, confirm ovulation when it happens, and if you're having troubles with your luteal phase. With the direction of your doctor, it may be worth it to try and reduce your alcohol or caffeine use further focus on optimizing your sleep, getting enough protein in your diet. Work on strength training to stabilize your hormones and focus on that good sleep quality, potentially by completely avoiding alcohol and caffeine altogether. Now for men, we're gonna talk about the practical tips there. Again, we'll break it down for each section. So for caffeine, same story. Keep to moderation. Aim for less than 200 milligrams a day. Again, that's going to be one 12 ounce coffee regular. Or two small coffees per day. If semen parameters are still problematic, and especially if DNA fragmentation is high, which can be problematic, you may want to try lower caffeine for a few months and then reassess again. There can be lots of different things that play a role with this, so caffeine may not be the whole story. For men, when it comes to alcohol, the target is less than seven drinks per week. So again, no more than one per night. And again, avoiding binges. So I see this often where guys will tell me, yeah, I only have seven drinks per per week. They're all in the same night, and that can create significant problems. There are good quality studies that show that binge alcohol drinking can impair sperm quality for up to two or three months, so ideally avoiding that binge alcohol drinking. Is really important when it comes to managing alcohol consumption for men. Again, similar to women, things that oftentimes are going to matter more are going to be making sure we have plenty of good sleep. So really important for guys as well as women engaging in regular weightbearing exercise at least three to four days per week, and focusing on regulating blood sugar. Insulin levels and avoiding heat. All of these things seem to make even more of a difference, but making sure we're staying within those safe parameters When it comes to alcohol and caffeine intake, as always, know that you can recheck your levels, make the changes when needed, but again, don't feel like you have to go crazy overboard with this. If your intake of caffeine and alcohol is. Already minimal and your labs or semen analysis are already looking pretty good. There's probably something else that's going on. If you have not already been working with a restorative reproductive medicine physician, I would recommend to go seek someone out. Clinics like my own focus on bigger changes. Things like making sure insulin levels are in good shape, doing a deep dive with thyroid, looking for underlying anatomic causes like endometriosis or endometritis. Timing your labs to your cycle and evaluating thoroughly any pelvic pain or other issues that may be playing a role with your fertility. Imagine if your daily caffeine or alcohol habits could align with your hormone goals. Coffee that fits into a smart limit, alcohol reserved for specific days or maybe not at all, and sleep that actually restores your hormone balance that is not negatively impacted by the timing of alcohol and caffeine. Over the course of even a few cycles, ovulation can become more obvious. Your sleep can become better when we are minimizing and using in moderation, both the alcohol and caffeine, and we can see improvements in your lab parameters and semen quality to improve health and promote fertility.

Speaker 2: 13:29

If you're ready to work with our elite team of healthcare professionals, go to our website, radiant clinic.com to schedule a free discovery call and learn more about our package based pricing for comprehensive care. We are currently able to see people for in-person appointments in our Cedar Rapids, Iowa Clinic, or can arrange for a telehealth visit if you live in many different states across the us. Check out our website for current states that we can serve medical clients and let us know if your state is not listed to see if we can still cover you there as we are constantly expanding our reach. Please note that our fertility educators are able to take care of clients no matter where they live. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please share this podcast with someone in your life who would benefit from our services. Remember to subscribe to this podcast for more empowering content that I look forward to sharing with you on our next episode of Cycle Wisdom.