Coffee Talk

If you love coffee like I do, then you may want to pay attention...

I love the stuff! The smell, the taste, everything. I used to watch my parents and grandparents wake sleepily, pad toward the kitchen to grind the beans and fill the pot with water, and flip the switch; the house would fill with a earthy, familiar aroma. It was a morning ritual that, as I grew up, I continued. To me it smells even better than it tastes, and that is saying a lot. So in solidarity with my ladies trying to kick the habit, I’m going to try to as well. (I must really care about you guys!)

What’s all the fuss about not drinking coffee to support optimal fertility? While many in the medical field are more lenient about coffee and caffeine before and during pregnancy, there are a number of reasons why if you are having difficulty conceiving, this might be a excellent time to reconsider the coffee habit.

Caffeine is linked with the following possible complications to women’s health:

• Increased risk of iron deficiency anemia related to reduced availability of iron

• Increased premenstrual syndrome symptoms

• Greater degrees of breast pain and fibrocystic breasts

• Decreased fertility and ability to become pregnant

• Increased risk of osteoporosis.

Some studies have shown that caffeine may increase the length of time it takes to conceive. One study showed that women who drank more than one cup of coffee a day were half as likely to become pregnant per cycle as compared to women who consumed less. There’s not enough of a consensus to say definitively that coffee is the culprit, but it’s an easy enough thing to change to increase the chances of conception and a healthy live birth.

What’s a girl to do? Well luckily, there are coffee substitutes. Teeccino is the one I’ve found to be the most like coffee, and the nice thing about it is Teeccino is packaged like coffee grounds so you can mix it with the real stuff to help smooth the transition-- thereby avoiding the usual headaches... and irritation with everybody within a 10 foot radius. Good news for our honeys!

Teeccino comes in a variety of flavors to suit all palates but so far I’ve been partial to the Organic French Roast (dark roast) and Java (medium roast). It’s available at many specialty grocers (including Central Market and Whole Foods) and online.

When dealing with fertility challenges, so many things feel out of control, and although this is just a small step it could be a significant one. And it’s one that you can easily make. Let us know if you have any questions and we can talk about how this shift could help you.

If all of this is making you thirsty, good news! We have some different Teeccino flavors now available for sampling at the office. Let us know if you want to try some!