Lovely tasty booze and TTC

[CatnipMouse]

So, I am 36, and we've been trying for a first baby for about eight months now with no luck. Not panicking yet but starting to get a bit impatient. I would love your thoughts on alcohol and fertility though as I have seen various suggestions that alcohol can impair fertility in women. I haven't stopped drinking alcohol, basically because I like it. I rarely actually get pissed (maybe once a month if that) but I do like a beer or a couple of glasses of wine in the evening. I have to admit that when I try to cut back I really miss it after a few days.

So my question is, if you are TTC have you stopped the booze completely? If so, how? Did you substitute it with anything? Or do you feel that it's not worth it / there's no link or the link isn't big enough to concern you / life's too short / other ?

I would stop (or cut right back to a tiny bit once in a while) if I was pregnant. Friends have said that they went right off it while pregnant so I hope that would happen for me!

First time here, and I can probably deal with it if you are mean to me - but it would be more helpful if you were constructive! Thanks x

I'm on my first cycle TTC1 and I haven't given it up completely. I'm definitely drinking less than I was over Christmas and am trying to keep my drinking to the weekends (and not going too far, maybe a few glasses of wine or a beer or two). I'm not a medical person but I think the stress of changing your lifestyle completely might hinder the process even further and drive you mad. Also a number of my friends and their husbands confess to having conceived during a drunken night.

As long as you stop as soon as you get a BFP, then I don't see a huge problem. But if you think it might be having a negative effect, could you maybe give it up just for a month or two to find out?

I looked at a paper concerning this recently, and IIRC there was a miniscule advantage (i.e. increased chances of conception by a fraction) of not drinking at all while TTC, over drinking low to moderately, but the difference was not much to write home about.

However I think conception was negatively associated with moderate to heavy drinking specifically during the week of conception (and link was both for men and/or women drinking), so avoid it during ovulation week if poss.

disclaimer - not a medical doctor and memory like sieve so the above should not be taken as gospel but corroborated/checked!

Sausage, do you have a link for the paper? Or any more info so I could find it online? It sounds very interesting, thanks!

We've been trying for over two years. I've generally eased off the booze and for 6 months gave it up entirely. It made no difference, so I am back to light drinking now. This is such a misery filled process, giving up going out for a chat over a glass of wine (which I love and find very therapeutic) just makes it harder.

I've been trying for quite some time now with no success. I have now cut out booze, and almost completely cut out caffeine, sugar, meat (esp red meat) and takeaways to give myself the best possible chance of conceiving. This will help with some much needed weight loss as well. My husband has also cut out drinking, I believe alcohol has a noticeable effect on sperm quality.

If we don't get anywhere after another 5/6 months, I'll probably let myself have a few glasses of wine again.

Hey EuroShagmore, sorry it is taking so long for you. Not fair is it. And gosh, Twinkly, that's a lot of things to give up, good for you. You must have Willpower of Steel (and you must have saved a fortune as well!) I could live without takeaways but a life without any caffeine would be tough for me!

Any tips or tricks from anyone on how to cut right back / stop? Did you find something that was a good substitute for you? I don't really like Coke or sweet drinks all that much.

Been trying for 18 months and have now given up booze, gone organic 90% of the time, ie, as much as I have control over, no caffeine, no sweeteners and eating as much healthy, unprocessed food as I can.

Can you start by cutting down to your weekly recommended units? As for substitutes, ain't nothing better for you than water :)

hi catnip DH and I like drinking too. We are on cycle 9 ttc and have cut back on booze since cycle 1 but never completely stopped.
Prior to ttc DH would have a heavy sesh fri -sun, nothing in the weekdays. I could easily polish off half a bottle or two of vino on weekends and around 2 units on most some weekdays.

Once we started ttc, I cut back to 4 units a month and don't see it as a significant amount that will stop me from falling pregnant. Now I just don't feel like drinking as it reminds me I am still not pregnant :( I probably still have 2-4 units a month (only on social occasions). I am not letting ttc stopping me from my odd glass of wine especially when every other woman around me seems to be having drunken sex and getting knocked up by 'accident'.

Water, twinklestar? By itself? I can't look forwards to coming home after work to a nice glass of water! I was thinking about virgin mojitos today, they are very nearly as nice as the real thing. That might be a good substitute for me. Any other good substitutes?

I think I am probably not drinking more than my recommended units, as any more than a couple of units on a weeknight means getting up for work is harder than it needs to be. I would quite like to cut it back to 5-6 units a week, that would be 2 or 3 glasses of wine, I reckon that's do-able. Or would it be easier to just stop completely, then there's no grey areas / talking yourself into having another tiny one...

I gave up alcohol completely before ttc, so did DH. Not had a drink since because I got pregnant the first months and am still bfing. We are ttc NO2 in 2-3 months, so DH has just given up again.

According to Zita West, 2 units of alcohol a week half your chances of conception. Of course that's just statistics and everyone is different. But I like to give myself the best chance of a healthy conception and baby.

Disclaimer: I'm a health nut though.

Gosh I hadn't heard of Zita West before. Some interesting stuff there, thank you. Her website says "The recommendation at Zita West clinics is total abstinence for both partners in the week leading up to ovulation and possible conception. Otherwise, a couple of units a week is fine ? but for many couples this may mean a complete reassessment of drinking habits. " I will look for the paper that Sausagerolemodel mentioned above and if that supports the idea too, I will definitely try to steer well clear around ovulation time.

I got my flipping period today though so am definitely having a glass of wine later.

RedRobin - 4 units a month?! I think I'd rather be childless than cut down that much

I'm doing a half-arsed TTC. I drink quite a lot but will have no problem giving up when I get a BFP. DH rarely drinks.

Ask me again if I'm still as interested in drinking if we don't get a BFP within a few months!

I'm also 36, and after 12 years of TTC the only things I can say I have successfully managed to permanently give up, or cut down to the barest minimum, are caffeine and ibuprofen. I've had periods of time (6-18 month stints) where I've not had alcohol, but as it's not made the blindest bit of difference to me that part of my life is now officially off-hold.

I had two cycles of IVF and was told I was fine to drink up to 10 units a week. First cycle I abstained almost completely and got no eggs at all, second cycle I drank probably more than ten a week and felt far more relaxed and am now 30 weeks pg the doc would transferred my embryo even said 'drink if you feel like it'!

UCL did some interesting research showing that allowing for lots of other lifestyle factors (which most studies don't), ladies who had been drinkers but then abstained whilst pg had children more likely to have behavioural problems than those who drank moderately (i.e. approx one unit per day). So the upshot seems to be that we still don't really know how it affects fertility and pregnancy...

If you stay hydrated and make sure you're taking folic acid and eating loads of veg and complex carbs, you should be getting what you need, maybe stick to red wine which has anti-coagulant properties and don't try and substitute. I found it easier to have none in the house than to try and replace it with anything as it was the feeling I liked rather than the taste!

Good luck

chewing I suppose that's where we might be different. I rather cut down and have a child than be childless and drink, different priorities I guess.

Notice the little wonky face I put in there Red...

• winky!

Sorry but after 9months of ttc, my sense of humour is rapidly disappearing :(

I'm 35 & 23 weeks pg with #1

We were really lucky & conceived after only 5 months

Alcohol: during my period/ week 1 of cycle I drank what I wanted & was a bit of a misery
Weeks 2-4 I drank 1 large glass of red wine (my drink of choice) on a Friday, Saturday & Sunday evening

Still got smashed at weddings/ birthdays

I was careful with diet & exercise. I have very little caffeine by choice anyway fortunately. I can see how that would be hard. And I had fortnightly acupuncture

Worked for us but I really don't think there are any magic rules

Good luck

Theres a good paper in the British Medical Journal that says that >5 units per weeks can affect your hormone and cervical mucous levels to transport the sperm. I asked my fertility doc and she said to just limit myself to 7 units per week.

Top tip - I had dinner party at Christmas and spent the whole night drinking shloer (in a wine glass), unbeknown to my guests!!! As long as I 'pretend' I'm drinking, I seem to get on ok!

Oh and tomorrow will be the real test...we have our friends coming to stay who will BOUND to want to do tequila shots. I have a cunning plan...I'm going to instigate the shot drinking and get mine as water (if the barman will do it! haha

The thing is, no one knows what is best. Some studies show no drinking helps conception rates, others show higher conception rates for moderate drinkers than teetotallers. There is no conclusive research. So my view is that you might as well not tie yourself up in knots about it and just be sensible.

I'm with Euro .

Well, not in that sense, otherwise that really explains a few TTC difficulties...

It's like the studies that say all alcohol is bad for you, vs the ones that say a bit of red wine is ok, vs the 101 year old dear who says she's had a bottle of gin every night since she was 12. Too many other factors, and it's impossible to pin down whether it's the alcohol, the type of alcohol, or whether it's any one of a million other things that just happens to be going on as well.

Personally, I think stress has a lot more effect on conception than alcohol, given its known ability to affect ovulation timings even at low levels. If not having alcohol will cause you to stress more and unwind less, maybe alcohol's the lesser of two evils. Alternatively, if you get uptight every time you have a drink in case it affects conception, it's probably best avoided.

How did the tequila shots go, Soph80?! Did your cunning plan work?

Sorry to hear that some of you have been trying for so long, it can be such a tough thing. Thanks for all your input, it's been very useful, and I didn't know about avoiding ibuprofen either so that's really good to know ControlGeek.

I reckon that less booze might help shift the post Christmas tum as well!!

Ha no, I decided just to be honest and said no! I managed 6.8 units (thats how much thought I put into it lol) on a 8 hour drinking session! Its weird watching everyone else so hammered. I left early only to be awoken by DH being sick . No more alcohol this month now, unless AF rears her ugly head haha xxx