Alcohol, Insulin and Infertility (E37)
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Gill discusses hormones. She explains how alcohol affects insulin and how it affects our reproductive hormones. She discusses how hormones send messages, how insulin works to maintain blood sugar levels, and how humans go through puberty. You’ll learn how alcohol affects fertility for both men and women, and how drinking during infertility treatments impacts the success of the treatment.
Key Takeaways
Chronic heavy drinking can cause both hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic episodes. It also reduces the effectiveness of insulin and studies have found that chronic heavy drinkers with diabetes have significantly lower survival rates than chronic heavy drinkers who do not have diabetes.
Hormone changes from alcohol abuse can lead to an impairment of male sexual and reproductive function. It also disrupts sperm structure and movement because alcohol prevents vitamin A from being stored correctly and vitamin A is required for healthy sperm development.
A 2003 study of 221 couples undergoing IVF found a 13% decrease in the number of oocytes retrieved, meaning when eggs are taken from the ovaries, a 2.86 times higher chance of not becoming pregnant, and a 2.21 times higher risk of miscarriage when the woman consumed one additional drink per day. When men had one additional drink per day it also increased the risk of not having a live birth by 2 to 8 times, depending on the time period.
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 37: Alcohol, Insulin and Infertility. Sober Powered. 2021.
Sources
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Emanuele, M. et al. Alcohol’s Effect on Female Reproductive Function. NIAAA. 2003.
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Jan Gill, THE EFFECTS OF MODERATE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION ON FEMALE HORMONE LEVELS AND REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTION, Alcohol and Alcoholism, Volume 35, Issue 5, September 2000, Pages 417–423
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Klonoff-Cohen H, Lam-Kruglick P, Gonzalez C. Effects of maternal and paternal alcohol consumption on the success rates of in vitro fertilization and gamete intrafallopian transfer. Fertil Steril. 2003;79(2):330-339.
