Consider this when you're trying to conceive.
The science:
A new analysis found that congenital heart birth defects in newborns increased by 16 percent when the mother drank alcohol and 44 percent when the father did during the three months before pregnancy.
Expert insight:
Women are typically the only ones asked to abstain from alcohol before pregnancy, but these findings show the advice may hold for men as well.
Studies suggest that the more alcohol men drink in the three months before conception, the more it negatively impacts things like brain and organ development in their offspring, says Gregg Homanics, Ph.D., principal investigator at the Homanics Lab of Alcohol, Neurobiology and Genetic Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
Alcohol may act as a stressor, affecting certain molecules within sperm cells that are important for healthy development in embryos.
The bottom line:
Homanics suggests that, to be safe, men stop drinking entirely when they’re trying to conceive. Otherwise, limit your alcohol consumption as much as possible, he says.