In Vitro Fertility GoddessWednesday 20 August, 2008
Source: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Women who were heavy drinkers in their teens and early 20s may pay with their fertility later in life.
A study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research found that women who were early alcoholics had children at an older age.
Lead author Dr Gillian Lockwood believes that it is biologically plausible that alcohol's impact on fertility is because many reproductive hormones rely on cholesterol which is made in the liver.
Dr Lockwood says that her findings should send a warning to young women to consider what impact their drinking could have on their fertility later in life and that those who are considering having children should give up drinking altogether.
But some experts say the results should be viewed with a grain of salt as the study did not distinguish between cause and effect, that alcoholic women may have more difficulties finding a stable partner which delays them having children.
Steve Hillier, a professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Edinburgh, told the Daily Telegraph that: "As always, the results of any study involving retrospective socio-demographic analysis like this need to be treated cautiously. However, if nothing else they are valuable in alerting us to the potentially deleterious impact of alcohol abuse on the female reproductive system."
Other fertility experts also believe that the emotional distress associated with fertility problems could mean that those women with fertility problems could be inclined to drink more to ease the pain.
