Really worried about my caffeine habit

[piercedprincess]

So i've been googling because I wanted to find out if my coffee addiction could harm my chances of conceiving and now I'm worried. I drink 2-3 cups a day, at the moment I'm on instant but I have been drinking percolated for the past two to three months.

Now I'm freaking out because I found out that even with instant coffee your taking in 300mg of caffeine a day, with percolated almost 500mgs!!!

Thing is I love coffee, tell me what do you people think, I am loathe to give up my daily coffee but if it's harming my chances I want to do what I can to maximize conception.

Do you think 2-3 cups of instant is too much? I've decided to cut out the percolated for now, since caffeine intake is higher with that. How much caffeine do you have daily?

Try decaff?

Hrrrm yeah can't stand decaff though and I can tell the difference a bit. Might have to suck it up though...

Now I'm freaking out because I found out that even with instant coffee your taking in 300mg of caffeine a day, with percolated almost 500mgs!!!

That doesn't sound right to me AT ALL. Where did you read this?

I'm pregnant right now and have been fairly lax at calculating my caffeine intake, but I did some Googling a while ago and tea / instant coffee / espresso contains nowhere near as much caffeine as that. I'll check again...

NHS guidelines for pregnancy say no more than 200mg per day.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/limit-caffeine-during-pregnancy.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=216

The amount of caffeine found in some foods and drinks is as follows:
one mug of instant coffee: 100mg
one mug of filter coffee: 140mg
one mug of tea: 75mg
one can of cola: 40mg

I've just realised you mean 300mg across your three cups a day, not 300mg per cup! Anyway, try not to freak out, I happily drank coffee as usual until I concrived, at which point I totally went off tea and coffee. Later on, I resumed hot drinks but haven't worried too much about keeping track of caffeine. My intake is never excessive, and the link above says not to worry if you occasionally exceed the limit, because the risks are small.

Basically, as long as you aren't drinking coffee by the pint, you should be ok

Thanks for the advice people, and yes seaoflove I did mean combined caffeine intake lol

Now you mention you went off coffee when you conceived you've got me curious, I wonder how common that is? Might have to start a new thread hrrrm obsessed me much?

I doubt it'll make much difference! I cut down when pregnant but had 5+ cups a day before that and I've got 3 kids

I'm not sure this is helpful since we were trying for a long time BUT on month 19 I gave up coffee (and alcohol; used conceive plus; had reflexology; used opks etc etc) and got my BFP at month 20.

Prior to this I was very much of the 'you have to keep living' mantra. So I suppose it maybe depends how far down the line you are

Good luck - I hope it doesn't come to having give it up!

Yeah, we've been trying for a long time too M33r. I truly hope it doesn't come to me having to give up my coffee but you know what I've been concerned about my wine consumption too and my twice weekly couple of glasses of wine so I think I'll start by cutting back to one or two small glasses of wine a week tops. Usually I'll polish off a bottle a week.

I have been thinking about this recently too as been ttc 18m now. This month I have cut down a lot on caffeine and just having tea and green tea, cutting out coffee completely. Tbh I doubt it makes any difference (except for to my mood!!) but worth a try. Some fertility diets I have looked up recommend giving up caffeine completely (along with alcohol, sugar and just about anything fun!) We'll see. Fingers crossed for you. I really doubt 3 cups of instant would affect anything much. But I suppose you never know.

Yeah I read green tea is mega helpful for fertility. Pity I can't stand the taste of the stuff myself. The OH drinks it though, I heard it's good for his sperm.

Well, given the guidelines say no more than 200mgs a day, and instant is 100mg (I'm assuming this would vary based on strength) you're better off dropping down to 1 "full fat" per day and the rest decaf.

You'll probably have some withdrawal symptoms but it's better for you and you'll find with time your one will have just as much effect as the 2-3 (as your resistance will drop).

Good luck!

I'm pretty well versed on why to cut out other stuff, but why do we need to lower caffeine intake?

Think coffee specifically affects homocysteine levels which affects amongst other things fertility. I also got pg when I cut right back on coffee, but obviously can never be sure exactly why I got pg.

I read the ten secrets of 100% healthy people by Patrick halford! Not fertility specific but about general health

Eeeps @ just the one babybumphopeful I don't know, I might try cutting down to 2 cups first. If have no luck in the next two-three months I'm going to cut it to the 1 for sure.

Hmmm I had it all stacked against me - older (37), had Mirena coil for 17 years, drinking LOTS of coffee. Got pregant first try eek...