Caffeine

My earlier post went over the controversy (imagined or not) over coffee and its effect on fertility. Personally, if I'm jonesing for coffee after 3 pm (my danger zone for having it keep me up), I'll opt for an caffeinated espresso (oddly, less caffeine although it tastes strong, than regular coffee) than a decaf. The healthy-sounded Swiss-water process sounded nice, until I thought--it has to involve more than just swishing water through the beans, or else you'll just have plain old coffee (water + coffee = coffee). No, in order to extract the caffeine, you're going to need a pretty strong solvent. Coffee is decaffeinated through either the direct or indirect method, both of which rely on a particular… [more]

Caffeine is a big topic in the fertility world. Some people say you should give it up, some people say it doesn't matter. The only clinical studies they've done have been on sperm, and it shows at least that it does make the sperm swim faster, but does that necessarily help fertility? What if they are jittery sperm? I have only anecdotal evidence to rely on, but I have decided myself to stop coffee while trying to conceive. Many of my friends who were having trouble finally "got there" once they gave up their coffee/tea/soda. Also, many people in their first trimester of pregnancy have coffee aversion--to me, that says something right there. Coffee remains this country's chief source of caffeine. But did you know… [more]