Does Drinking Alcohol Make It Easier, Or Harder, To Conceive A Baby?

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Does Drinking Alcohol Make It Easier, Or Harder, To Conceive A Baby?

2 Answers

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Answer 1

According to scientific studies, the best thing to do if you're trying to get pregnant is to limit yourself to a casual drink now and then.

Drinking large amounts of alcohol will certainly have a negative impact on your fertility rates, although a glass of wine before sex might actually help!

Will getting drunk affect my chances of getting pregnant?
Getting drunk might make you more likely to have sex, and is also thought to be a major contributor to the amount of unprotected sex people have - so, in this regard, alcohol might be just the thing to help you get pregnant.

However, it's also well-known that drinking alcohol can cause hormone imbalance in females, and this is linked to a woman's menstrual cycle, so makes it difficult to get pregnant.

Alcohol also affects the quality and quantity of sperm in a man's semen, so if you're determined to have a baby - then your man will probably have to cut back on the booze, too.

However, going completely teetotal might also be a hindrance to your baby plans. Everyone knows that a tipple can help a person relax, and being stress-free is definitely a positive, if you're trying to conceive.

Answer 2

Both, actually.

Easier, because you are less inhibited during the 'baby dance', and perhaps in general, and perhaps less conscientious about using birth control, too. Stress is a known cause of infertility all by itself.

Harder, because the more alcohol you drink, the less likely you are to conceive.

In a raw, undifferentiated-by-type way - if a woman drinks alcohol right around the most fertile spell of her cycle, she will take longer to conceive than people who abstain during that week (so says Danish research, using self-reported data about the amounts of alcohol drunk by couples trying to conceive).

If you do want to drink when you feel like it and still conceive (eventually), the Danish researchers have come up with a further suggestion: Stick to wine (and very modest amounts at that), rather than spirits/beer. This will help you conceive faster!

This may be because wine is typically drunk with meals (unlike other forms of alcohol), so may have less impact on the body.