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Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

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Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I think of "beers" in America, I usually think of Bud Light or similar lightweight lagers that are usually in the 4-5% alcohol range. Drinking 3-4 of those over a few hours with food will not get most people very drunk at all, depending on bodyweight and tolerance. I prefer IPAs which average closer to 7% and that higher alcohol concentration seems to make a big difference. Drinking 3-4 of those can get a person…

It seems you've been downvoted by people who get drunk on two Bud Lights, lol

I guess so! I mean hey, if you never drink and you weigh 150lbs and have an empty stomach and you chug two Bud Lights... you're gonna get drunk! But this is not the situation most people are in when we think of someone "having a few beers".

And maybe people have different ideas of "drunk"? I don't think simply feeling some effect from alcohol constitutes being drunk.

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#112
post #2

> He also noted that it doesn’t take excessive alcohol use ... > “In the models we’re using, even drinking three to four beers after work several days a week can induce [bad stuff for sperm],” Golding said. “You may not feel inebriated, but your body is going through chemical changes.” Vs. the CDC's current upper limit for "moderate" male drinking is 2 drinks/day, and they're very quick to specify that "a" beer is at…

in northern culture, the CDC's recommendation is laughable. Excessive drinking is a regular thing where its cold

See also: the recommended 2000 calorie diet

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#114
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the beer. Measuring one beer as we donin Bavaria, in at least half litres, and meaning by multiple times a week more than three days, maybe. By measuring beer in 0.3 and 0.2 litres, ans assuming the average US beer, even doing so 5 days a week propably doesn't get into abuse territory by the alcohol amount alone.

In US culture/science, one "drink" or "beer" is 0.5oz of alcohol. Beer is often 12oz of 4% alcohol. Wine is 6oz of 9%. Liquor is 1oz or 50%, etc. There are stronger drinks, but in this scientific context should be considered multi-drinks. People not understanding this unit scale causes a lot of problems, like teens having 20-30oz pours of alcohol like it's (also ugh) soda or juice. I wonder if European science and US…

I can't speak for all of Europe, but in Austria no-one speaks of "drinks" when talking about alcohol consumption. This concept of a standard "drink" size is foreign to me and I know it only from US literature.

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#115
I don't follow these things particularly closely and I don't consider myself particularly concerned with health issues, but for some reason I always had it in my head that the general rule of thumb was six months of no alcohol before trying to conceive. Weirdly this article seems to be portraying this three month rule as a shockingly strict new development.

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#116
post #93
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3-4 beers after work several days per week seems like a drinking problem imho.

A drinking problem isn't defined by quantity, it is when you have a problematic habit/dependence that you can't quit at will. There are plenty of people who enjoy a few drinks several days a week but can just cut back or stop completely when they want/need to because they don't have alcoholism. I used to drink 3 beers almost every night. I cut down on it to lose weight and now have a single beer 2-3 nights a week and…

My measurement for this sort of thing is, "if there's none in my house tonight and I get a hankering, how willing am I to go out looking for it?"

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#117
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe for you. Moving to Finland and seeing that a six pack cost as much as a month's worth of breakfast was all the motivation I needed to kick the stuff.

Some of us live in free and warm countries with no matriarchical nanny state. Gov't doesn't take half my income, and doesn't charge me an arm and a leg to have a beer.

I moved from the US of A my man lol

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#118

Perhaps important to note that this result comes from a lab experiment done on mice, with as far as I can tell N=24 mice split in a control and two treatment conditions. I would be very careful concluding anything from that study about what human males should or should not do.

I think it is very important to mention.

I don't know how accurate mouse models are for alcohol, but alcohol tolerance varies widely among animals, and even between humans. We have complex metabolic pathways for alcohol, we even get quite a lot of calories out of it. And while both mice and humans are mammals, I guess there are significant differences regarding reproduction too.

So going to a study on mice to some conclusions like: you should abstain from drinking for at least 3 months, and quantitative measurements like "moderate drinking", which, at about 3 drinks/day is more than "moderate" to me.

After a quick look at the paper, there is no such conclusion. When it comes to humans, there is not much more than "maybe it is something worth looking into".

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that 3-4 beers several times a week is allot of alcohol. It is an amount where I would definitely start to think that ones life would be degraded in certain ways by the amount of alcohol consumed. Where I live the recommendations are that people that drink 10 or more units of alcohol per week should be provided support from the healthcare system to reduce their drinking.

> I would say that 3-4 beers several times a week is allot of alcohol. I agree, I drink on average 1-2 a month, it's going to be 3-4 this month because of extra family and friend gatherings because of the holidays and I'm already feeling like its excessive. The article doesn't answer if my level of drinking would require the same length of abstinence.

Thanksgiving through new years is the season for conceiving. September is by far the most popular birth month!

Re: Men should abstain from drinking at least three months prior to conceiving

#120
post #93
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3-4 beers after work several days per week seems like a drinking problem imho.

A drinking problem isn't defined by quantity, it is when you have a problematic habit/dependence that you can't quit at will. There are plenty of people who enjoy a few drinks several days a week but can just cut back or stop completely when they want/need to because they don't have alcoholism. I used to drink 3 beers almost every night. I cut down on it to lose weight and now have a single beer 2-3 nights a week and…

With enough quantity it's a problem in itself even without alcoholism.
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