Caffeine and Fertility: Is My Grande Getting in the Way of Getting Pregnant?
Caffeine is key; ask any working woman what moves her from bed to car/subway, office to a workout, and shower to dinner, and most will say coffee. Hot, iced, sugared, and frothed, it can motivate even the most sluggish of us to complete and power through our daily tasks. And more than the much-needed jolt that joe gives, it’s the warmth of the cup, the smell of the beans, and the smile from your corner barista that makes the morning routine one of our favorite parts of the day.
Questions about caffeine from bleary-eyed women who have been incorrectly instructed to quit flood our desks on a daily basis. But start brewing your beans, because we are here to say caffeine is not the culprit. While a cup a day may not keep the doctor away, it will likely keep you sane, keep you awake, and keep you functioning!
While caffeine has been deemed the devil in many pop culture forums for women struggling with fertility, there is only modest medical data to support this notion. Again, that age-old adage, “Anything in moderation,” is the key. Moderate caffeine consumption, defined by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (the Holy Grail of most fertility doctors) as one to two cups a day (or the equivalent of about 100 to 200 mg per day), does not appear to increase a woman’s risk of infertility or poor pregnancy outcome.
Now, to put this in perspective, when the street vendor on the corner serves you a medium cup, this is about 100 mg. Starbucks is a whole different story. Because we, too, are crazy caffeine addicts, this is one myth that we have already decoded. So here’s the skinny on Starbucks (and all other spots to fuel up!):
Espresso shots (think Americano, cappuccino, latte) have about 75 mg of caffeine. So if you go for a tall cappuccino, you will be having one shot, a.k.a. 75 mg of caffeine (totally acceptable). Even if you bump it up to a grande (two shots), you are still within the acceptable range (150 mg). Now, this may come as a surprise (it did to us), but the brewed coffee carries a much heavier caffeine load. A tall hot coffee has approximately 260 mg of caffeine! Size that up to a venti hot coffee, and we are talking 410 mg of caffeine. If you are more of an iced kind of a girl, size seems to matter less. A tall iced coffee will run you about 120 mg, while the venti has 235. So here, double the size does not double your caffeine load.
Although the medical data are limited, women who consumed high levels of caffeine (defined as greater than 500 mg a day or five cups/day) appeared to have a higher risk of infertility. There is also a concern that the babies exposed to these higher levels of caffeine will be delivered earlier and will be on the smaller side. This is not true when you stay under the two cups per day level (unless those two cups are venti coffees!).
In Eastern medicine, caffeine is a “qi mover”, so when we feel stuck and sluggish, it gives us an energy boost by freeing up stagnant energy. From this perspective, people who love coffee and need it to get going in the morning often have patterns of stagnation in their body…they tend to constipate more easily, have more intense premenstrual symptoms or cramping with periods, be prone to headaches, and feel their best after exercise. They also often love to wind down with a glass of wine in the evening. If this if you, don’t worry, qi stagnation is the most common pattern diagnosis for Women from an Eastern medicine perspective, and having small amounts of caffeine is likely keeping you feeling your best. But definitely don’t overdo it, as too much caffeine is a drain on your energy battery (adrenal glands) and can make you feel worse in the long run. Try exercising in the mornings to free up your stuck qi and sip mint tea (also a qi mover) in the afternoons if you want a beverage. If you need more than a cup of coffee in the morning to feel ok, you may be more depleted than stagnant and need some changes in your diet, lifestyle, sleep quality and some targeted herbs or supplements to get you back on track.
How you get your caffeine is something to consider too. While coffee and tea have not been clearly linked to infertility or miscarriage, sodas (both diet and regular) are not our faves! Yes, although we too break and grab a diet soda every now and again, the other chemicals fizzling in that carbonated beverage may not be what you need to quench your reproductive system with.
The long and “breve” of it is that caffeine is not the enemy and probably not the cause of your fertility struggles. While you may want to rethink that extra shot, your morning cup can continue to be consumed and enjoyed when you’re trying to conceive. (Try saying that seven times fast. It definitely can’t be done without caffeine!)