Green tea for increasing fertility?
If you are trying for a baby, a cup of green tea could be a great option for increasing your fertility and boosting your pregnancy chances.
Green tea is definitely a good, healthy coffee alternative decreasing your daily caffeine intake which in excess can harm fertility and negatively affect conception. So, limiting caffeine intake is more than enough reason to consume green tea instead. But, that is not all.
Green tea is an antioxidant-rich beverage with many health benefits, including the reproductive system. There is some research reporting that antioxidant ingredients of green tea may protect the reproductive organs from cellular damage. More specifically, polyphenols and hypoxanthine of tea may improve chances of having viable embryos as well as promote egg maturation.
Researchers from Stanford University used a supplement made of green tea extract, chaste berry, folic acid and minerals to decide its effects on pregnancy chances. 15 women received this nutritional supplement and other 15 women received a placebo. According to the study results, one third of the women receiving the green tea supplement got pregnant within five months while none of the placebo groups achieved pregnancy. Though the study sample is too small to prove positive effects of green extracts on increasing fertility it can surely suggest that a positive correlation exists.
But it is not only women who can benefit from green tea consumption. A study published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research demonstrated that small everyday nutritional habits like moderate green tea consumption may be improving sperm motility, thus increasing male fertility. According to the study, it was found that low doses of EGCG (the major catechin of green tea) increase cholesterol efflux in sperm cells; a procedure of great importance for their proper function and fertilizing ability.
So if you want to benefit from green tea health properties all you have to do is to add it in your diet. Just don’t overdo, bear in mind that in excess it can have the opposite results, harming both male and female fertility. So keep it safe and stick to 1-2 cups per day.