Stim phase and alcohol

[Anonymous]

Drink! After transfer hold off.

[Anonymous]

I continued to go out and drink socially during the stim phase. I was not getting wasted (too old for that, hence, IVF), but I would have a couple of drinks on the weekend with friends. One stim cycle was all it took.

[Anonymous]

OP, for what it's worth, I did not drink during my cycle. There have been studies that associate alcohol with lower rates of success in IVF, including one from Harvard Medical School. While I certainly know of people who drank (in moderation) their entire stim phase and got pregnant, I didn't want to risk regretting drinking if things didn't work out for us and felt that not drinking for a month wasn't going to kill me, though yes, I wanted a glass of wine - or three - multiple times.

We invested a ton of money in IVF and a ton of emotion and it was worth it for me to avoid things that might influence success.

Managing regret is the biggest thing here. If you don't think it's an issue for you, drink.

FWIW, our Dr. at SG didn't mention avoiding drinking and only advised that I avoid any herbal medication, which was a non issue for me.

An abstract of the study:

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27336535/nihms699311.pdf?sequence=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, for what it's worth, I did not drink during my cycle. There have been studies that associate alcohol with lower rates of success in IVF, including one from Harvard Medical School. While I certainly know of people who drank (in moderation) their entire stim phase and got pregnant, I didn't want to risk regretting drinking if things didn't work out for us and felt that not drinking for a month wasn't going to kill me, though yes, I wanted a glass of wine - or three - multiple times.

We invested a ton of money in IVF and a ton of emotion and it was worth it for me to avoid things that might influence success.

Managing regret is the biggest thing here. If you don't think it's an issue for you, drink.

FWIW, our Dr. at SG didn't mention avoiding drinking and only advised that I avoid any herbal medication, which was a non issue for me.

An abstract of the study:

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27336535/nihms699311.pdf?sequence=1

I agree with this.

[Anonymous]

The Harvard study was about general behavior for alcohol consumption, not drinking during stims. Also, it implicates the husband/partner behavior. There was also no accounting for anything else they recorded (smoking, caffeine, vitamins). I agree that curbing drinking is reasonable when trying to get pregnant by any means, but this study definitely doesn't suggest that no drinking while stimming is helpful or that the reverse is harmful. The very premise of the study was that there are lots of studies with contradictory outcomes on drinking and fertility.

Yes, the study suggests that regular consumption of more than 4 drinks a week may have a negative effect, but the thread is about someone wanting to have a glass or 2 of wine on a night out with friends.

IVF causes a lot of anxiety and it's natural to get superstitious about what will or won't work, but we should all remember that much of what we're latching onto is not proven and done primarily to make ourselves emotionally stable during a stressful process. If you feel better not drinking and it relieves your anxiety, I think that's fine. If having a drink helps relax you, that's fine, too.

[Anonymous]

My drs told me no alcohol. But after two years of trying, I was DONE and needed to let loose- so I drank heavily for months (not necc advocating this...) and conceived DS when I least thought it was possible. He's now almost 2 and perfect. My RE frowned upon this when I told him during my beta but said at the point it was usually all or nothing-

[Anonymous]

Personally, I did drink occasionally on stims. This shizz is hard to deal with and a glass of wine every so often really
helped. My doc didn't say not to drink, but I also didn't ask. If we're talking a glass of wine vs like jaeger shots I really don't see the harm. Of course follow doc advice overall (so if he or she says no, then go with that).