Accoring to a study reported at the 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting a surprising percentage of IVF patients are not following their center's lifestyle behavior recommendations based on their responses to an online Lifestyle and Health Habits Questionaire.
Their center recommended they decrease their exercise regimen. One hundred percent of patients expercised during their cycles. Nearly half (49.5%) consumed alcohol even they were instructed in writing to eliminate alcohol consumption. This particular center advised their patients to limit caffeine consumption to less than 50 mg daily which is less than one cup of coffee. Three-fourths reported caffeine consumption and almost half drank caffeine daily, most often coffee which has 60 to 200 mg of caffeine per cup. Twelve percent took herbs during their cycle even though they were explicitly told not to take herbs.
We believe that these lifestyle behaviors can have an adverse impact on outcome. For more on these issues, please see our Lifestyle & Fertility pages.