[Closed] Coffee & fertility

As far as I'm aware, moderate caffeine intake has not be found to have any significant influence on semen quality. You can't rule it out entirely, but it's not an obvious effect such as smoking.

Life isn't worth living if you have to drink green tea, TBH.

EDIT: A more obvious potential culprit of poor semen quality may be the reason we're all on this forum...(not arguing, cycling). But even the evidence for that is not exactly bombproof.

There is no clear causal link. I've sat through enough IVF conference presentations to know!

I could keep a small coffee shop open on my intake alone and I'm still potent.

We were "unexplained" for years and did a lot of reading about what we could do to improve our chances. Other than being generally healthy (active, not overweight, things in moderation, etc.) I don't think there's much you can really do. It's either going to happen or you're going to need a bit of help.

If you're worried or it's been a while, get tested and go see the doctor (it can be a very long process) though you need to have been at it for a year before they'll consider you as having a problem.

I smash the coffee and "we" never had a problem getting pregnant.

I'd put stress as the biggest cause of failing to conceive if you're both healthy. Seen a few friends struggle as they'd decided "now is the time" then stress over why it ain't happening after the first go, they then gradually wind it up until it's all they think about, it happened when they chilled out a bit and stopped treating it like a production process. Funnily enough one couple has just announced they're expecting a second without even trying/

Years ago I used to drink gallons of strong coffee, I was know by mates as "coffeee king". I was going through some pretty heady times with work and I was also riding semi pro on the road. My G/F and I decided to try for Kids and we continued that for 2.5 years before we gave it up as a failed attempt to concieve. I'm not sure to this day why we didn't concieve, I doubt coffee had a major part to play in Gods Decision, more susspect I was trying too damn hard to keep my lifestyle as was and needed some sort of mild addiction to keep me going.
I used to drink very strong espresso type coffee, you know those small pots Bibetto do, well I had the large one and would finish that off in one hit then drink about 4/5 a day and continued that for about 4 years.
One day, after our last attempt at concieving, I stopped coffee completely and went through a phase of craving and withdrawl symptums, sounds mental now to suggest this I went through an addiction withdrawl but that was confirmed by my Doctor at the time and I fully believed him, it was terrible.
I then proceeded to steer clear of coffee and drank white tea for 5 years afterwards and whilst I'd like to say we eventually did produce a child, we didn't. It was Gods way of saying, Nahhh Sonny, Kiddos aren't for you...

Dunno if I've missed out on Kids, just thought I'd put that out there.
😐

Seriously though, I don't know what you're situation is but unless you have a lot of time on your side, if you think you have a problem get some tests done. It took us over five painful furstrating years to work out what the problem was and now we have a toddler and another on the way. During that time people telling us that if we "just chilled out a bit then it would happen" does not help 🙄 ... and which by the way would never have worked.

If your Mrs has decided that coffee is the problem you might as well just give it up now.

The answers I wanted to hear, Thanks

*Brews coffee

Stress is something both the wife and I are aware of,
it's early days and we're not worried,
Guess we'd rather eliminate any obvious barriers now rather than later.

I guess the longer it takes the more money I can spend on the my bikes 😉

I smash the coffee and "we" never had a problem getting pregnant.

Bloody hell, both of you.

*puts coffee down

And what Martin said, if all we can drink is green tea. I wouldn't want to bring new life into such a world.

I guess the longer it takes the more money I can spend on the my bikes

Hmm you probably don't know how much fertility treatment costs 🙁

Edit: Just to add that I hope it all does work out ok and that you don't get to find out!

Double edit: ... a quick mental calculation... our two will have cost us over £35k.

Talking of addiction,

the one thing that has made me ponder is my hedonistic youth,

I took all sorts of pills and powders without really knowing what was in them!

I could be fully infertile!

Oh well, I had a good time...I think?

About 2.5 grand a cycle I think, less if you've done the egg harvesting bit already and just want fertilised eggs put back.

So not much less than a decent bike.

Hmmm....bling bike or kid?

You can always hit the jackpot with IVF and end up with a two for the price of one offer, like we did.

... another thing is that it's really not worth dwelling on why you might be in this situation. You'll find thousands who've done exactly the same things and have no problems. Just bad luck most of the time I reckon. It turned out our problem was with mrs blobby and she did go through a phase of feeling guilty that it was her problem though I always thought of it as our problem.

Anyway sounds like early days for you so hopefully this is all premature and you'll get some good news soon.

Now go have a coffee and relax 😉

Edit...

About 2.5 grand a cycle I think, less if you've done the egg harvesting bit already and just want fertilised eggs put back.

Depends on the clinic and the specific treatment and drugs you need but in my experience double that and you'll be closer. Then there's tests and potentially a lot of other drugs. And it's more likely to fail than succeed!

We spent £40k + on IVF, gave up in the end and adopted, think what I could have done with the money ......

But it was something we had to do and luckily we had the money.

But it was something we had to do and luckily we had the money.

Must have been a tough decision to call it a day.

Do either of you drink soy milk, by the way? Might be a small effect there. We didn't get pregnant until she stopped drinking soy milk. Almost certainly a coincidence, but maybe not.

Another view for the pot... if you really want to try for children why not commit to it and do everything you can to help?

Improving what you eat and giving up coffee and alcohol for a few months and even *god forbid* staying off the bike for the same amount of time is a small price to pay for knowing you have done all you can to help with the concieving thing.

FWIW - We tried for a couple of years and eventually got refered. I had lazy swimmers and my wife has PCOS. She ended up on metformin and I decided to do all I could to improve my swimmers. Fertilisation for child no1 coincided with the end of the 50+th day of me not riding and our improved eating plan etc. Child no2 was concieved 9 months after the birth of no1 and didn't require the same effort, but I would have gone through the same if required.

we lived on freshly ground coffee, red wine and cigarettes and had no problems conceiving our beautiful daughter, my advice, relax, enjoy yourselves and each other. Oh, and don't try too hard.

Try taking loads of class A's, getting blind drunk and having a one night stand. Worked for me. 😥

we lived on freshly ground coffee, red wine and cigarettes and had no problems conceiving our beautiful daughter, my advice, relax, enjoy yourselves and each other. Oh, and don't try too hard.

You will hear this a lot from people who don't have a problem conceiving 🙄 Well meaning but quite frustrating!

neilsonwheels

turns out these moments are not so bad in the long run....

it is a bit of a shock to teh system at the time tho granted....

EDIT. Nothing.

A very worthwhile ninja edit there crispy 🙂

we lived on freshly ground coffee, red wine and cigarettes and had no problems conceiving our beautiful daughter, my advice, relax, enjoy yourselves and each other. Oh, and don't try too hard.

Yes that's fine for people who don't have fertility problems... 🙄

we lived on freshly ground coffee, red wine and cigarettes and had no problems conceiving our beautiful daughter, my advice, relax, enjoy yourselves and each other. Oh, and don't try too hard.

Try taking loads of class A's, getting blind drunk and having a one night stand. Worked for me.

What lovely, thoughtful and helpful words

Yeah, those sorts of comments would drive mrs blobby to tears when we were going through it all 🙁 Well meaning but so unhelpful.

Reading the above about class As and drinking, I believe relaxing has a lot to do with it. There are several cases of couples trying and then adopting, before then becoming pregnant. My guess is that the pressure is off.

Molgrips' comment is perfectly OK when aimed at the OP, who, as far as I can tell, is just looking for general lifestyle advice before he gives it a bash, so to speak. He's not aware of any fertility issues, and TBH, he and his partner need to be unsuccessful for at least 12 months before hitting the panic button on that one.

If the thread was specifically about someone who had been trying for ages with no luck, well, then, yes, it might be a tad insensitive.

Loads of people live utterly dissolute lives and have no bother conceiving. That's the routine unfairness of life generally, and fertility in particular.

I was lucky in the sense that I knew I had nothing to bring to the party from the off, so IVF was the only option.

Loads of people live utterly dissolute lives and have no bother conceiving. That's the routine unfairness of life generally, and fertility in particular.

So so true. I have no idea of the OP's and his partner's ages, but often we're leaving it till our mid to late thirties to have children. Evolution is going to take a while for women to catch up. Despite many blokes thinking they have some kind of golden bullet in their testes, it'll most likely be the woman's body that decides whether a pregnancy goes ahead.

About 2.5 grand a cycle

bloody hell, you could buy a bike for that

Reading the above about class As and drinking, I believe relaxing has a lot to do with it. There are several cases of couples trying and then adopting, before then becoming pregnant. My guess is that the pressure is off.

Often hear these stories but they are by far in the minority... though it's fair to say that an awful lot of fertility issues remain "undiagnosed" and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that it may just happen after many years of trying unsuccessfully. Unlikely though. And I doubt "relaxing" has much to do with it.

Some friends of ours are going through it at the moment. Turns out she went through an early menopause in her twenties and never realised. No amount of relaxing is going to work for them but some of their friends do still suggest it!

Anyway, OP, if it's early days, good luck.

... oh and don't stress about the coffee 😉

I have no idea of the OP's and his partner's ages, but often we're leaving it till our mid to late thirties to have children. Evolution is going to take a while for women to catch up.

The notion that a woman's fertility drops off a cliff in her mid thirties is a myth, because it is based on 300 year old statistics.

A more recent study says that "Among women aged 27-34, the study showed that 86% will have conceived within a year of trying. So the 82% figure for women aged 35 to 39 is only a little lower."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24128176

To increase your chances for procreation you need to do the deed as much as possible. starting 5 days before her ovulation (12-14 days after the first day of her blob) shag every other day without fail and keep this up until very near the start of her next blob. If there is sperm waiting for the egg the likelyhood of having a girl increases. Have Fun!! 😀

Have Fun!!

Not wanting to sound like the harbinger of doom... but even this stops being fun after a while when you have fertility problems 🙁

Though unless you've been trying a year with no luck then you don't really have a problem 🙂 So get on with it.

Ransos - the issue in a woman's thirties isn't the boundaries of natural fertility. It's the success rate for fertility treatments, which do begin to diminish sharply from the mid-30s onwards, although techniques are improving.

So, if you start trying in your early/mid 30s, give it a year, by the time you've realised there's an issue, got help, diagnose a problem, started IVF, the chances of success may have fallen significantly.

I think the IVF stats are now pretty good up till late 30's, been a while since I've looked though. And tests and treatments are improving all the time. What worked for us for example has only been available the past few years and only at a couple of clinics.

2010 stat (success rate per cycle, not birth rate)

32.2% for women aged under 35
27.7% for women aged between 35–37
20.8% for women aged between 38–39
13.6% for women aged between 40–42
5.0% for women aged between 43–44
1.9% for women aged 45 and over

Better than it was when my two were born, that's for sure, it used to drop off a cliff at 36. Most important factor seems to be the clinic.

Before you go and speak to any docs about fertility find out exactly what you PCT rules are on NHS funded IVF. It is a bit of a post code lottery and very few have fully implemented the NICE guidelines.

Some will not fund if the women is over 35 or you have not been trying for more than 2 years (and various other rules like being fat or smoking)

Worth having this info in your back pocket before it being a rather unpleasant surprise.

And I think the cost per cycle is closer to £4.5k but I suppose it will depend where you go.

Lots more things to rule out before you get to IVF though. As someone in a similar situation I know how stressful it is, so good luck.

Yeah, those sorts of comments would drive mrs blobby to tears when we were going through it all Well meaning but so unhelpful.

Anyway, don't stress about coffee, I was told no more than two cups a day and to keep caffeine down (chocolate etc) in general during IVF and 3/4 cups a day in general or you'll never sleep :). If it makes you or in particular your other half feel better then cut it out. Along with soya which is ever increasingly turning out to be food of the devil when it comes to fertility for women in particular

Jekklys advice isn't quite right unless you know your Mrs has a 28 day cycle. You ovulate 14 days (assuming no luteal phase issues) before your next cycle. I have long cycles and ovulate generally ovulate sometime after day 21 so concentrating on doing is 5 days before the lead up to day 14 would be a bit useless. If shes not regular get sticks.

There's too much information out there now for women to just kick back and enjoy trying for more than a few months. Try for 12 months, if nothing happens go to the docs and have a spunk test. If your mid 30s upwards go after 6 months. Good luck, our first year of trying was pretty good fun 🙂 Just a shame that four years on it still hasn't produced anything.

Bizarrely it was injecting mrs blobby with a bag full of soya (amongst other drugs) that worked for us!

Ransos - the issue in a woman's thirties isn't the boundaries of natural fertility. It's the success rate for fertility treatments, which do begin to diminish sharply from the mid-30s onwards, although techniques are improving.

Yup, but the myth of sharply reducing natural fertility is still being peddled...

All I'm saying is that for a couple (say in their mid 30s) struggling to conceive, they shouldn't think it's because they left it too late.

Pfft, I got pumped full of purified old lady p**s. Joyful, didn't work either. Actually, the old lady p**s worked, it was the rest of it went tits up

Pfft, I got pumped full of purified old lady p**s. Joyful, didn't work either. Actually, the old lady p**s worked, it was the rest of it went tits up

Blimey, not heard of that one. What's that meant to do?

Pfft, I got pumped full of purified old lady p**s. Joyful, didn't work either. Actually, the old lady p**s worked, it was the rest of it went tits up

WTF?

I drink loads of coffee and have 4 kids.

So that's how they make Pregnyl?! I'll have to tell mrs blobby as she had that too!

They used to get the drugs from nun urine. Now the drugs are manufactured by custom microbes, so the quality and purity is far better.

For the records, my wife and I have tried for five years to have kids. We've just completed our third full (and final) NHS cycle of IVF and are waiting for our seven week scan. However, the journey has seen us miscarry at about 10 weeks (not good), fail to take hold, miscarry, fail to take hold and carry to 20 weeks then stillbirth (very nasty). There is nothing wrong with either of us that generalists or specialists at two separate hospitals can find, the infertility and miscarriages are unexplained.

We hope with every fibre of our being that this time we will be able to carry to term, but the next 30+ weeks are going to be brutally hard on us both.

Everything crossed for you willard.

It's a horrible process, any outcome other than a healthy baby at the end of it is absolutely devastating. Our first round didn't take back in September and I was and still am just heartbroken, I can't compare the feeling of that moment you realise it's over to anything else, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Fortunately we have 3 top grade day 5 blasts and 1 day 6 blast in the freezer so might try again in the new year if we've got a spare £1600 lying around.

Blobby I'm not sure what the old lady pee did but I had it when I was growing my eggs. I responded really well, 17 eggs, 8 fertilised, 4 in the freezer. Although the one they put back in was perfect too and that didn't turn out well.

Willard, everything crossed here too. I can't begin to imagine how awful stillbirth must have been.

emma, that is a top notch haul! Worth giving the frosties a go. Our boy is a frozen one and mrs blobby is currently baking another frozen one, due Feb.

For what it's worth we had three go's with two fails and a miscarriage (positive test but no heartbeat at 6 wks - that was tough). Then went to Care in Nottingham (a nice 4 hour round trip for each visit!) and did the immune tests. Mrs blobby came back positive (so the theory is her immune system was attaching the embryo.) So we got IVF with the immune treatment and we're two for two 🙂

It really is a shitty process to have to go through, more often than not for a negative outcome, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Yup, but the myth of sharply reducing natural fertility is still being peddled...

Fertility declines with age. For some people who are struggling to conceive in their (well, her, to be more accurate) late thirties, they [i]may[/i]
have left it too late. That's why the NHS advises that women over 36 who are struggling to conceive should see their GP sooner rather than later.

I'm going to ask about immunity testing when we go for our review next week, that and someone on another forum mentioned embryo glue, that's not the technical term obviously but I'd never heard of it before. Going to have a medicated FET and put two back if thawing goes ok I think. Having said that I'll probably get there, fall apart and be dragged home a crying mess and refuse to ever do it again. I'm promised FET is a lot less involved though

Mrs. Willard pretty much flatly refused to go through the whole process again after the last time. The hormones pretty much ruined her all the way through the prep and after implantation. Seeing all that work fail and losing our first child at 20 weeks just destroyed her.

She did carry on though and we hope that this time things will be successful. If not, we will go private and see where that takes us and what extra treatments they can offer over the NHS ones.

Emma82, good luck next week and thanks for the words. You too Mr. Blobby!

As meaningless as it from a stranger on the internet (who had a slight dabble with possible infertility but nothing on the scale you guys are going through), the very best of luck over the coming weeks to you all. Hope it all goes well.

I'm going to ask about immunity testing when we go for our review next week

After 3 failed attempts we just wanted to try and do whatever testing we possibly could and try and get some sort of diagnosis other than unexplained infertility. I still think we'd be trying now if we hadn't found this. Was about a grand for the Chicago tests I think.

Thanks Willard and DD. It's funny how you spend all this time and effort working towards a positive test.. but then that's when the worrying really starts!

Good luck all, didn't mean my earlier comments to come across as crass, apologies.

Miscarriages are bloody awful! The Mrs ended up being diagnosed with a blood clotting condition that was causing hers, she had to have an injection everyday to thin out her blood when pregnant.

We did the whole lot, gave up alcohol completely, gave up all but the odd cup of instant coffee, stopped riding the bike, even drove my car with my legs apart with blowers cooling my nads.

Didn't work in the slightest but we *were* fortunate to conceive first time with self-funded ICSI IVF due to our postcode meaning we didn't get NHS help. Painful writing out cheques for £900 for drugs at a local hospital when the person ahead of us got the same drugs for the cost of a prescription.

Still...

Erm, what's the issue? If you're meant to have have kids you will, coffee, alcohol, class whatever drugs...

They will mess up your life, cost you a fortune and contribute to over population - and they'll probably have a worse life than you do, so why inflict it on them? Sorry, but it seems like narcissism to me...

Sure, whatever you want to think. It's nothing to do with self love, it's basic human nature to want to reproduce.

Thanks for your **** contribution though.

Sure, whatever you want to think. It's nothing to do with self love, it's basic human nature to want to reproduce.

Thanks for your **** contribution though.

Bollocks - and if you can't be civil, don't bother to contribute either. Get over yourself and have a big think about what I said. You might just learn something, although from your post I doubt if you're mentally capable of that.

Bollocks - and if you can't be civil, don't bother to contribute either. Get over yourself and have a big think about what I said. You might just learn something, although from your post I doubt if you're mentally capable of that.

Thing is, most of what you said is either incorrect or purely your opinion. So there's ****-all to learn. You've been pretty rude in your only two posts on the thread so far, so either sober up or have a nap. You might be in a better mood in the morning.

Think the thread may have gone from coffee & fertility to alcohol & ignorance

Yeah, and where do you get off having a go at me DD? When does someone's opinion get to be invalid - or is that the way conversation is now in this fascist country?

Admittedly one of my posts might have been a little strong, but it isn't everyone's human nature to want to reproduce - thank goodness, or we'd be completely screwed.

And why do you say that, adjustablewench?

**** me, it's early days and you're looking at shit like coffee intake? 😯
Try for 6 months (in my recent experience it can/will take this long), then go for tests.
If it doesn't happen, it won't be because of 2 cups of coffee/day.
+1 for DD, Julian, you're a dick.

Julian - as you clearly haven't been affected by infertility, your punitive remarks about parenthood and living with children aren't really welcome just now. And quite why you think people wanting children is anything to do with Narcisism is beyond me.

I wish you well, nature may find a way. Live your life, do not give up hope.

If your Mrs has decided that coffee is the problem you might as well just give it up now.

With a grin or a wink, consider the earlier response as well 🙂

@johndoe - nothing in my posts should suggest that I've been affected by infertility - I simply don't want children. I also happen to think that a desire to reproduce is often narcissistic. Is it now illegal to hold an opinion?

@wrecker - I hope any offspring of yours don't inherit your wit, charm or eloquence!

They will mess up your life, cost you a fortune and contribute to over population - and they'll probably have a worse life than you do, so why inflict it on them? Sorry, but it seems like narcissism to me...

Possibly - many would take that bet. Over and over and over again.

To paraphrase: Sorry but your view seems like Nihilism to me. Think: Eeyore?

I hope you get granted the choice and find some love for something - anything! - somewhere, somehow.

Julian, I aside the opposite, you appear to be unaffected, therefore not understand the issue.

So, instead of contributing to a thread positively, you spout nonsense based on personal opinion.

And still you haven't explained why wanting children is connected to the unrelated position of being obsessed with yourself.

@bonchance - and that's why we have a free society. So that others can take that bet and I shan't - for whatever reason (and no one has asked about that, and I am not interested in explaining). I can no longer take that choice, for better or for worse, and again, I'm not going to explain.

I happen to think that the next generation is not going to have a great time, so why is it such a great idea to have children? I think it's narcissistic because people seem to want to perpetuate themselves - I have no such ambition: my life has been sufficiently inadequate (until I met MrsJA) that I shouldn't wish it on someone else.

The dreaded double post!

I said alcohol and ignorance because I was wanting to believe your less than tactful remarks on this thread were perhaps a result of drinking a few, and ignorance, because whatever your personal views you seem to have no comprehension of how deeply upsetting this subject is for those affected.

So I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you may have been slightly p!ssed and had little understanding - rather than being just down right malicious to those on here that have spoken quite openly about their experiences.

Well julians taken himself out of the gene pool.

Problem solved I think.

@adjustablewench - has my most recent post shed any light? My posts are (I hope) rarely or never malicious - I mostly have better things to do - but I do have very strongly held views on how things might turn out, and I don't think its going well for the world or for the next generation, so I can't quite see how it's going to turn out well for them.

I'm sorry that people are upset by their ability or otherwise to have children, but I think that if God doesn't intend them to reproduce they should just enjoy the practise and if children happen well so be it.

I do so hope you'll do the same, Tom. Your eloquence and lucidity will be sorely missed. Not to mention your punctuation: I trust you'll not be passing that on to the next generation!

No, I still think your posts are inappropriate on this thread. If you want to start a debate about global population or whether there is a 'god' determining whether an individual couple can reproduce . . .personally I think you should start a different thread

That muppet up there ^^^ Jesus, what a loser.