If you’re planning on having a child, it’s just as important for you be healthy as it is for your partner. Many things can damage your sperm, including being overweight, smoking, older age, and exposure to harmful chemicals. These factors won’t just reduce the chance of pregnancy – they can also affect the health of your baby.
How Does Alcohol Affect Sperm Quality When Trying To Get Pregnant?
Having the occasional alcoholic drink is unlikely to affect your fertility. But heavy drinking can reduce sperm quality, lower testosterone production, and make it harder to achieve an erection. It can also lead to liver damage, which affects both your general and reproductive health. We don’t know exactly how much alcohol will impact your fertility, so consuming alcohol in moderation is your safest bet. We also recommend cutting out or reducing alcohol at least three months before trying for a baby.
Certain Drugs or Medications Affect Fertility?
Using anabolic steroids (drugs that act like testosterone) lowers your fertility, with long-term and sometimes irreversible effects on sperm count and quality.
Some prescribed medications and recreational drugs can also lower fertility or sexual function. These include:
Long-term use of painkillers that contain opiates
Medications for treating depression and anxiety
Chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments for cancer
Recreational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin.
If you’re concerned that your medication might affect your fertility, the best thing to do is speak to your doctor.
Some prescribed medications and recreational drugs can also lower fertility or sexual function. These include:
Long-term use of painkillers that contain opiates
Medications for treating depression and anxiety
Chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments for cancer
Recreational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin.
If you’re concerned that your medication might affect your fertility, the best thing to do is speak to your doctor.
Summary
If you want to conceive and have a healthy baby, it’s time to review your alcohol consumption. Drinking alcohol can affect your sex life, it can reduce your fertility, and it has the potential to harm a baby, even during early pregnancy when you might not know you’re pregnant.
Becoming a father is not always easy. If you are a man or if you have a body that produces sperm, drinking alcohol is linked to sexual dysfunction and research suggests it can reduce your sperm count and the quality of your sperm.
Becoming a father is not always easy. If you are a man or if you have a body that produces sperm, drinking alcohol is linked to sexual dysfunction and research suggests it can reduce your sperm count and the quality of your sperm.
