Posted on 07/20/2011 12:07:03 PM PDT by decimon
RENO, Nev. – Caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman's ovaries to her womb. "Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant," says Sean Ward, professor of physiology and cell biology, at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, who conducted the study.
Ward's study was recently published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.
Human eggs are microscopically small, but need to travel to a woman's womb if she is going to have a successful pregnancy. Although the process is essential for a successful pregnancy, scientists know little about how eggs move through the muscular Fallopian tubes. It was generally assumed that tiny hair-like projections, called cilia, in the lining of the tubes, waft eggs along assisted by muscle contractions in the tube walls.
By studying tubes from mice, Ward and his team discovered that caffeine stops the actions of specialized pacemaker cells in the wall of the tubes. These cells coordinate tube contractions so that when they are inhibited, eggs can't move down the tubes. In fact these muscle contractions play a bigger role than the beating cilia in moving the egg towards the womb.
"This provides an intriguing explanation as to why women with high caffeine consumption often take longer to conceive than women who do not consume caffeine," said Ward.
Discovering the link between caffeine consumption and reduced fertility has benefits.
"As well as potentially helping women who are finding it difficult to get pregnant, a better understanding of the way Fallopian tubes work will help doctors treat pelvic inflammation and sexually-transmitted disease more successfully," said Ward.
It could also increase our understanding of what causes ectopic pregnancy, an extremely painful and potentially life-threatening situation in which embryos get stuck and start developing inside a woman's Fallopian tube.
###
Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article from the British Journal of Pharmacology may contact: healthnews@wiley.com
As the state's only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in health care, medical education, and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine encompasses 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally-recognized departments in basic science. The doctors of University Health System, the school's clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with seven physician offices in the Reno area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is dedicated to a best-practice approach to medicine and is committed to addressing the health needs of Nevada now and in the future. For more information, please visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.
Ping
That’s actually really interesting. Thank you for posting this. Not that *I* am interested in getting pregnant. But who knows, this is really News you can Use! :)
Ok, free coffee for all who are too stupid to avoid needing abortions.
Mice can live for months eating their own poop. That, and many other things don't necessarily translate to humans.
Dunno, but I’ve been a coffee-drinking fool all my life and a fertile Myrtle to boot. Six pregnancies in six years. Although two only made it because of -rh factor, but no fertilization problem. Hmmmm....
Maybe some women are borderline for some particular reason or reasons. Maybe the caffeine will push them across the line. Something like that.
I hope so. The health news articles I most like are those involving what people can try for themselves.
“That, and many other things don’t necessarily translate to humans.”
I have always wondered about that sort of thing myself. How does testing something on a rat get translated into a problem for a human?
For instance, why does the ability to produce a cancer on a rat’s ass by repeatedly applying a product not made for rats’ asses translate into that product being called cancerous to human lungs or such? Especially when they use a concentrate thousands of times stronger on the rat’s ass and in a form that is not like that being consumed by the human.
Don’t we have enough dimocrats to do this kind of testing on?
Hope no one believes this - my grandmother who drank coffee morning til night had 11 children. Not an effective BC method!
Where do you see anything about this being proposed as a birth control method?
Agreed. I like this because so many women are concerned about what they do after they get pregnant (kudus to them!) but they don’t think so much about what they do beforehand.
Trying to recall if I drank much caffeine in my hyper fertile days. I don’t think I did. Should have ;) (only kidding, wouldn’t trade my three rug rats who grew into fine young men for anything, not really).
Headline implies caffeine is linked with infertility.
Quit drinking Coke ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.