Can drinking damage eggs and cause foetal abnormalities?

[mosiacmaker]

I wondered if drinking while TTC could impact egg quality and therefore cause foetal abnormalities or issues with any baby conceived - or is the egg basically just DNA and not impacted by this sort of thing?

Maybe this is a really a stupid question but wondering if some doctors could chime in? I am in my fertility window but accidentally drank quite a lot at a party 2 weeks ago so wondering if this could have damaged the egg that is currently being released - or is this not an issue?

I don’t mind so much if damaged egg quality just means can’t get pregnant this month, but worried damaged egg quality means the baby resulting from said egg would be damaged? If so I will skip this month TTC. Or does egg quality just refer to egg viability. Please don’t flame me for asking such a stupid question - I did already ask google!

Not a doctor. But so many people accidentally get pregnant or don’t find out they are pregnant straight away and drink alcohol in the early stages that it can’t be that big of a deal or the world would be full of babies with foetal problems and it isn’t.

I drank early in my pregnancy (first 3-4 weeks) and asked the doctor if this could have caused a problem and she said until it implants it has no impact.

I drank like a fish, missed a period and tested on day 2 or 3 of missed period. did not drink at all during pregnant and baby was born perfectly healthy and no issues.

Basically same as @TortaD

Two separate issues with drinking I think.

In some people alcohol can cause oestrogen levels to change, which may mean less likelihood of conceiving at all, depending on the person.

Drinking can affect the baby from sometime in week 5 of pregnancy, when the embryo becomes connected to the mother. So between 14 and 21 days past ovulation. Before that, alcohol can't reach the baby.

Your eggs are all fully formed and waiting all your life, so drinking can't affect them whilst they're developing because they're already fully developed. Not like men, who produce sperm all the time (quite a bit in advance of when it's used I think).

So yes, although there are no certainties as far as I know, but in summary drinking up to 14 days past ovulation MAY mean less chance of conceiving at all, but shouldn't have any effect on the embryo's development if an embryo is successful.

If you’re a long term alcoholic it will affect egg quality and the foetuses gestation, but a few drinks or a big one off weekend while ttc will not. Until the placenta is established the embryo feeds off the yolk sac and has nothing to do with what the mother eats or imbibes. This is to protect it until the mum knows she’s pregnant via two missed periods (no pee sticks 100s of years ago, and most people drank 1-2% alcoholic drinks as they were safer than water back then too.) our great great grand parents turned out mostly ok- one big weekend will have done no harm at all. However there is a caveat, that alcohol can up estrogen levels and work against progesterone, which can interfere with conception in some people who are struggling to conceive.

if your diet is healthy and you’re taking a prenatal vitamin, a healthy weight and having a mostly healthy lifestyle then that’s all you can do. Most problems are genetic with either egg or sperm(some increase with age too) but it’s not anything you can necessarily control. Most problematic embryos will result in a miscarriage before you even know you’re pregnant.

im not a doctor, but have had secondary infertility for the past few years and this is the summary of knowledge from the nhs and private doctors I’ve spoken to. somethings are not in our control, all you can do is your best 80% of the time and try to relax. Good luck on your ttc journey x

From what I’ve heard, if you drink in the early stages of pregnancy, it won’t cause abnormalities, it will just kill the baby outright. Drinking later is what causes FAS. I’ve never heard anything at all about egg damage!

I will say though that I spent 6 months of lockdown TTC while also drinking a lot and didn’t manage it. Decided to stop drinking and conceived that very same month. So if you are trying might be worth giving up to help yourself along!

‘Kill the baby outright’?

please refrain from posting such inflammatory things which are categorically untrue.

how do you think the human race survived when alcoholic beverages were the only safe thing to drink?!?

You honestly don’t know the damage that post could have done to newly pregnant women with anxiety.

Any consumption of unnatural substances affects our bodies. Due to the massive range of issues that babies born now- neurodivergent etc. I think this is a field of study that should be further invested in. I think mitochondrial data is damaged not just in the egg but the sperm as well.

It’s like cancer. A well regarded scientist told
me that everything we do affects our chances of developing cancer etc but were we to abide our lives by avoiding any activity that could increase our chances, we wouldn’t want to live. Its not just alcohol, its polluted air, disastrous diets etc.

Thanks everyone! Just to be clear I understand the risks of drinking in early pregnancy - I was just wondering about the impact of drinking before conception on the developing egg/follicle.

From what I can gather an egg is “chosen” to mature and be released around 2 weeks ahead of ovulation - so I wondered if this 2 weeks while the egg is developing is also a time we should be concerned about - ie does drinking interfere with the DNA in the maturing egg in some way.

I guess also same question for sperm - can drinking cause you do have a badly formed sperm with major issues?

I understand that it can reduce fertility overall but just wondering if it could cause abnormalities in a resulting baby (even where you didn’t drink a drop through the whole pregnancy).

Maybe this just isn’t possible to study so no one knows!

Actually, it’s a 3 month window of time beforehand can impact egg quality. Whilst eggs are formed as primordial follicles when we are fetuses , the lead follicle(s) are selected and grow larger prior to ovulation and are impacted somewhat by diet and lifestyle, inevitably. For example overactive immune cells, reactive oxidative species etc are found in the follicular fluid surrounding the egg and impact egg quality as it develops.

The final stage of division (meiosis II) happens just before ovulation and is when the 46 chromosomes split into 23 ready to bind with the 23 sperm chromosomes at fertilisation. It’s a crucial time. How much we can influence egg quality is a matter of debate but many of us have seen improvements - read “It starts with the Egg” if you want to know more.

Oh and sperm refreshes entirely every 3 months so if a man makes lifestyle changes he has a much better chance of significantly improving his quality.

this is fascinating. So the majority of eggs have 46 chromosomes, right up until a few days before conception? Where do the other 23 ‘go’, after the final stage of meiosis? I had always assumed eggs were just made with 23 for the woman’s entire life.

Quick somebody tell women needing abortions all they need to do is get wasted at a certain time of the month! Sounds like nonsense? Yes, because it is absolute nonsense! Drinking in the early stages is not recommended but it does not kill embryos. Ignore this.

Lots of women drink before pregnancy. Hell, I've known women who are alcoholics ( them of them) who drank regularly evsn through pregnancy. One of them on a daily basis. I recall seeing her , quite heavily pregnant at the time, full blown wasted that she could barely stand. She drank with all her kids and all turned out perfectly fine, as has the other children so don't stress yourself out so much. It's still better to avoid alcohol tho while trying to conceive.
If your activity trying I'd probably suggest cutting down as much as possible and not to drink after ovulation

@Wednesdaysotherchild thank you for this! Does egg quality effect the resulting child or does it just impact viability of the egg for pregnancy do you know? :)

Hi @mosiacmaker i don’t think anyone can definitively answer this for you.
On a macro level there’s an association between poor egg quality and disabilities. most poor quality eggs won’t implant at all. A smaller % will implant and result in miscarriage and an even smaller % may develop, but with abnormalities .
alcohol consumption may affect egg quality but the risk is more with heavy, sustained alcohol abuse as part as a whole lifestyle package ( rather than a the odd boozy night a couple of weeks before you conceive iyswim).
To the extent that you can influence egg quality (which is thought to be somewhat marginal in any case) it’s about your overall/ global health over a period of time.

In sum , the chances that drinking at a party in the couple of weeks before you conceive will cause you to have a disabled child are extremely remote, so I would crack on and not worry about it. However, if you do suffer with health anxiety issues it may be better to wait, only because if you do get pregnant you don’t want to spend the whole 9 months (and possibly beyond!) worrying about what you drank at that party and if it had any effects.
wishing you all the best x

Thanks so much @Golaz xxx

For anyone interested, I did find this study that shows potential impact of binge drinking on eggs as they develop and mature (so before ovulation). Not sure what is defined as binge drinking in the study and really hoping the shared bottle of tequila between 4 that absolutely ruined me two weeks ago doesn’t meet the threshold 😬😬🫣https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314404/

Drinking is not recommended during the 2nd half of the cycle, source: