Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
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January 29, 2012
Caffeine
My colleagues and I will sometimes joke that we went to university for 13+ years and now that we are in practice we get asked “can I dye my hair in pregnancy?” and we can’t answer it! We were never taught the answer! We learned about molecular mechanisms of disease, spent hours in the histology lab reviewing cell structures, sat through many lectures on metabolism and pharmacology, etc. but we were never taught the answers to many everyday questions.
One such question I get asked often is “how much caffeine is safe when trying to conceive?”
To answer that a few researchers have followed women who were trying to conceive though their attempts and early pregnancy and had them record how much caffeine (in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate) they consumed. While there were some conflicting results, the bottom line is that more than 200mg of caffeine per day slightly increases the risk of miscarriage. There was no suggestion that caffeine caused infertility.
A study referenced in the NY times recently looked at how caffeine consumption effected non-pregnant women’s estrogen levels. Interestingly, caffeine was found to increase estrogen levels in white women but decrease estrogen levels in Asian women. This is probably due to genetics. The change in level, up or down, wasn’t enough to effect ovulation or fertility, that they could tell. I wonder what it means for mood and libido in the short term, and breast cancer and bone health in the long term. It will be interesting to follow this research.
Part of my job is to translate this kind of science to patients; and it’s the most fun part. Now that I have been in practice for a few years I find myself reading much less basic science research and much more of the patient-centred research. It makes the job more fun and allows me to answer the questions patients actually want answered. Rarely do I get asked about the expression of steriodogenic proteins by mouse syncytiotrophoblasts. hehe….
Dr. Beth Taylor, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility
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January 7, 2012Building a Better Baby?
The cover of the Globe and Mail today featured an article on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). The article is titled Building a Better Baby.
In my opinion the article tries to create a big concern where there is a small one.
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September 25, 2010Horrible
The past week has been filled with stories of families in Ottawa who have come to learn that their children where not created with the sperm they believed they were. Several patients of Dr. Bernard Norman Barwin in Ottawa, Ontario were inseminated with the husband’s sperm or anonymous donor sperm to conceive their child. They have now discovered someone else’s sperm was used. So children are not a genetic match to their fathers or their donor.
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September 21, 2010Canadian Fertility Meeting
Next week the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society’s annual meeting is being held in Vancouver. The CFAS is the national organization of fertility doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists and other affiliated professions in the field of fertility. The CFAS establishes best practice guidelines and collects data on the practice patterns and success rates of fertility treatments, like IVF, across Canada.
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September 1, 2010New Textbook
This month a new textbook on reproductive surgery was published. It’s editors, Drs. Gomel and Brill, are well respected physicians and surgeons in reproduction and infertility. Dr. Gomel is a mentor of mine and practiced in BC for over 30 years. He is a pioneer in IVF, laparoscopy and infertility surgery. Many, many babies have been born thanks to Dr. Gomel.