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There is hardly a person who has not heard about the negative impact of alcohol on the conception of a child. However, it is so difficult for some to give up the habit of alcohol that they literally require specialists to name the dose of alcohol that is safe for conception.
It can’t do without covert advertising of intoxicating drinks manufacturers: from time to time, clearly custom-made “research results of reputable scientists” appear in the media, indicating that certain types of alcohol (beer, wine) allegedly stimulate the reproductive function. In order to understand the dangers of drinking alcohol immediately before or after conception, let’s look at how they affect the reproductive system.
Is it possible to drink alcohol before conception
The fact that alcohol drunk by the mother can lead to the birth of a sick child, people knew in ancient times. Therefore, many peoples for women under 30 years old even had beer banned. Society treated men much more condescendingly. Only excessive drinking was condemned.
Only in the 70th century were studies carried out that clearly showed that father’s alcoholism is almost more dangerous for the health of children than mother’s drunkenness. It turned out that 10% of chronic alcoholics had drinking fathers, and only XNUMX% had mothers. Even more impressive was the statistics collected in one of the psychiatric clinics in Paris at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. It turned out that one in five demented children had a father who was a drunkard.
The effect of alcohol on the reproductive function of men
For the body, ethanol is a poison, but, in addition, it is also an excellent solvent. Once in the stomach, alcohol is very quickly absorbed into the blood. Its concentration can be especially high in seminal fluid. Moreover, alcohol is excreted from the reproductive system for the longest time, that is, the consequences of drinking affect within a few days.
The seminal fluid, into which ethanol enters, turns into an aggressive environment. If the sperm of a healthy sober man contains only 25% of pathological spermatozoa (with defects), then in a drunk man this figure can exceed 50%. Under normal conditions, pathological spermatozoa rarely participate in conception: they are inactive and most often not viable. But in seminal fluid containing ethanol, the movement of healthy spermatozoa slows down. As a result, the risk that the egg will be fertilized by a sperm with damaged DNA increases significantly.
It is known that it takes about three months for the maturation of spermatozoa (spermatogenesis). And at any time, ethanol can negatively affect their DNA. Accordingly, a man who wants to conceive a healthy child must abstain from alcohol for at least three months.
It should also be borne in mind that under the influence of alcohol, zinc is intensively excreted from the body. The lack of this trace element in the blood leads to a decrease in potency. Therefore, a drinking person is much less likely to conceive a child than someone who leads a healthy lifestyle.
The effect of alcohol on a woman’s reproductive function
When a girl is born, her ovaries already contain about 500 follicles. This is a lifetime supply. During the reproductive period, only 400-500 of them will mature.
Absorbing into the blood and getting into the female reproductive system, ethanol destroys the DNA of the eggs. Some of them die. If a woman does not abuse alcohol, then ovulation occurs on time, and the supply of follicles is such that the loss of even a few thousand will not damage the reproductive function.
However, there are cases when an egg with damaged DNA not only survives, but is also fertilized. Then a sick child can be born. For example, the reason for the birth of Siamese twins is precisely damage to the DNA of the egg. No one knows which egg will mature for fertilization. But the more a woman drinks, the worse the condition of her follicles and the higher the likelihood of conceiving a child with mental or physical disabilities.
So it does not really matter when a girl abused alcohol: in early adolescence or on the day of conception. Therefore, for any woman of childbearing age, moderation in the use of even low-alcohol alcoholic beverages is a necessary condition for the birth of a healthy baby.
But all of the above does not mean that it is permissible for a woman to drink alcohol immediately before sexual intercourse (some especially desperate ladies may assume that it will not get any worse). Indeed, doctors say that if the expectant mother is drunk at the time of conception, this will not affect the state of the fertilized egg.
Another thing is scary: under the influence of ethanol, the secretion of secretory fluid in the fallopian (fallopian) tubes increases, which can cause their blockage. It takes a few days for a fertilized egg to travel through the fallopian tube to the uterus and settle there. Due to blockage of the fallopian tube, the egg begins to develop in it, never reaching the uterus. Thus, drinking alcohol immediately before or after conception increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy.
Is it possible to drink alcohol after conception
Sometimes a woman who discovers that she is pregnant recalls with horror that she drank a glass of wine a few days after conception. You should not be especially afraid: at least five days pass from conception to fixing the embryo in the uterus (implantation). During this period, alcohol in the mother’s body will not harm the unborn child.
But when the embryo is fixed in the uterus and begins to develop, it becomes very sensitive to both ethanol and its decay products (acetaldehyde). Even small doses of alcohol can cause vasospasm of the placenta and umbilical cord.
The embryo simply suffocates due to lack of oxygen, and oxygen starvation provokes disturbances in the development of the fetus. Very often, children of drinking mothers are born prematurely, with diseases of the central nervous system, anomalies of various organs.
Doctors believe that if the expectant mother feels well, then for the entire period of pregnancy she is allowed to drink a glass of dry wine once or twice. However, it must be remembered that excessive alcohol consumption at any stage of pregnancy can lead to miscarriage.
Alcohol and the conception of a healthy child are incompatible. Therefore, when planning a pregnancy, future parents should completely abandon alcohol, and also undergo a preliminary medical examination.