The association between caffeine and alcohol consumption and IVF/ICSI outcomes: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies
PubMed 36259227 · doi:10.1111/aogs.14464
What was done
A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis (PROSPERO CRD42021256649) searched PubMed, Embase, and MEDLINE through July 15, 2022. Authors evaluated the association between caffeine and alcohol consumption and IVF/ICSI outcomes across 26,922 women and/or male partners. Twelve studies on caffeine (seven in meta-analysis) and 14 on alcohol (nine in meta-analysis) were synthesized using one-stage robust error meta-regression to evaluate dose-response effects.
What was found
Caffeine consumption was not significantly associated with pregnancy rate in women (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.85–1.12) or men (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.75–1.14), nor with live birth rate in women (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.89–1.08) or men (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.86–1.12). Maternal alcohol intake was negatively associated with pregnancy (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.69–1.01), and paternal intake was negatively associated with partner live birth (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.79–0.99). Consuming 84 g of alcohol per week compared with abstention was associated with a 7% lower chance of pregnancy for women (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.90–0.98) and a 9% lower chance of live birth for partners of men consuming that amount (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.88–0.94).
Why it matters
This study provides quantitative evidence that moderate-to-high weekly alcohol consumption by either partner is associated with reduced IVF/ICSI success rates, whereas caffeine intake shows no meaningful association with treatment outcomes.
Limits
The underlying evidence is observational, making findings vulnerable to residual confounding, recall bias, and self-reporting errors in intake measurement. Less than two-thirds of the included studies provided sufficient quantitative exposure data to be included in the dose-response meta-analysis, and the overall main effect for maternal alcohol consumption and pregnancy included the null.
Cited by
- supports When a woman's weekly alcohol consumption exceeds 84 grams, the chance of achieving pregnancy after IVF or ICSI drops by about 7% compared to abstaining.
- supports When a male partner consumes 6 or more alcoholic drinks per week, the chance of achieving a live pregnancy after IVF/ICSI falls by 9%.