Caffeine, conception: no correlation.

Caffeine, conception: No correlation

Contrary to previous reports linking women's caffeine consumption with delays in conception, a new epidemiologic study finds no such correlation, except perhaps in the case of tea. On average, fertile women in the study who drank more than two cups of coffee a day took about the same time to conceive as did those who drank less than one cup a month.

The retrospective study involved two groups of women selected from seven hospitals: 2,817 pregnant women and 1,818 infertile women (defined as not conceiving after one year of unprotected intercourse). The women were asked about their daily intake of regular or decaffeinated coffee and tea, as well as weekly consumption of cola. In addition, researchers gathered data on conception-related factors such as age, cigarette smoking and number of previous pregnancies.

When epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta analyzed the data, they found that conception delays did not increase with caffeine consumption, says CDC's M. Riduan Joesoef. Regardless of caffeine history, the average time taken to conceive was 4.5 months and the median time was 2 months. Joesoef speculates that the one seeming exception to this rule--tea--may somehow exert an effect through its tannic acid content. The data, reported in the Jan. 20 LANCET, also show that higher caffeine intake correlates with increasing age, weight, cigarette smoking and alcohol use. In comparing the fertile and infertile groups, the researchers found no link between caffeine and inability to conceive.