London, July 22: A researcher at the University of Nevada School of Medicine has found that high caffeine consumption is associated with infertility in females.
Sean Ward, professor of physiology and cell biology at the University, says 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,” said Ward.
By studying muscular Fallopian 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.
“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,” Ward stated.
–Agencies–