Not recommended as a contraceptive
Women with high caffeine consumption often take longer to conceive than
other women.
Now a new study appears to have found an explanation for this connection
- and the findings may help to play a part in treating infertility.
In order for a woman to get pregnant her eggs must travel to the womb
through the Fallopian tubes. The mechanisms that allow her microscopically
small eggs to move through the tubes are not well understood, but scientists
have long suspected that tiny hair-like features in the walls of the tubes,
called cilia, somehow help the eggs to waft along. Muscle contractions in the
Fallopian tubes also appear to aid this process.
By studying this process in mice, scientists at the University of Nevada
School of Medicine discovered that caffeine stops the actions of specialised
pacemaker cells in the wall of the tubes. The cells' function is to coordinate
the contractions in the tubes, so when these are stopped the eggs can't move to
the womb, as the contractions are more important to the eggs' movements than
the cilia.
Commenting on these results, study leader Professor Sean Ward said:
"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."
While this effect can be reversed by reducing coffee consumption, the
insights revealed by the study could contribute to developing new treatments
for infertility and other conditions, "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" Dr Ward said.
The results of the study are published in the British Journal of
Pharmacology.
The Family GP
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