Can Caffeine Affect Fertility?

So can caffeine affect your fertility? Yes it can. Studies have shown that a high caffeine consumption (that’s around 5 cups per day of coffee) can contribute to decreased fertility in women. While the findings are not exactly clear on why this is the case, it’s worthwhile to lower your intake of coffee, tea, cola drinks and even chocolate while trying to conceive.

One particular study found that women who had more than 300 mg of caffeine per day had lowered their chances of getting pregnant by 27% compared to women who didn’t have any at all. However some other studies have shown no correlation at all between caffeine and fertility so it can be confusing to know who to believe.

You are going to have to decrease your caffeine levels anyway when you do get pregnant as it can affect the baby (and in some cases has been linked to miscarriage), so starting now is worthwhile for your health anyway.

So how much is too much when it comes to how much caffeine you can have when trying to conceive?

You should aim to consume no more than 200 mg per day. That’s the level that is linked to raising the chances of miscarriage.

To put that into perspective, a regular cup of coffee contains 100 mg, a soda drink has 50 mg and energy drinks usually have around 80 mg per can. That means that even if you can’t live without your morning coffee, as long as you limit yourself to no more than two cups per day then you’ll be fine.

If you do currently have more than that, don’t go cold turkey as this can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as headaches. Instead wean yourself off gradually by lowering your intake by a small amount every few days. You can alternate with decaffeinated drinks or add more milk to your coffee.
Below are some tables of the caffeine levels of certain regular drinks and foods:

Caffeine Charts

Coffee
coffee, generic brewed 8 oz 102-200 mg
coffee, Starbucks brewed 16 oz (grande) 330 mg
coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts brewed 16 oz 206 mg
caffÉ latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 16 oz (grande) 150 mg
caffÉ latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 12 oz (tall) 75 mg
espresso, Starbucks 1 oz (1 shot ) 75 mg
espresso, generic 1 oz (1 shot) 30-90 mg
coffee, generic instant 8 oz 27-173 mg
coffee, generic decaffeinated 8 oz 3-26 mg

Tea
black tea, brewed 8 oz 40-120 mg
green tea, brewed 8 oz 30-50 mg
decaffeinated black tea 8 oz 2 mg
Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea latte 16 oz (grande) 100 mg
Nestea 12 oz 26 mg
Snapple 16 oz 42 mg
Lipton Brisk iced tea 12 oz 10 mg

Soft drinks
Coke 12 oz 35 mg
Pepsi 12 oz 38 mg
Jolt Cola 12 oz 72 mg
Mountain Dew 12 oz 54 mg
7-Up 12 oz 0 mg
Sierra Mist 12 oz 0 mg
Sprite 12 oz 0 mg

Energy drinks
Red Bull 8.3 oz 80 mg
SoBe Essential Energy, berry or orange 8 oz 48 mg
SoBe No Fear 8 oz 83 mg

Desserts
dark chocolate 1.45-oz bar 31 mg
milk chocolate 1.45-oz bar 11 mg
coffee ice cream or frozen yogurt 8 oz 50-60 mg
hot cocoa 8 oz 3-13 mg