According to a new study, women who drink too much coffee, reduce the changes of a successful IVF treatment by halve.

Danish researchers said that women drinking five cups of coffee or more reduce their chances of successful IVF treatment by halve. The studied 4,000 IVF and ICSI patients and found that the affect of too much coffee was similar to that of smoking. The researchers also found that drinking that much coffee reduces live birth rate by 40 per cent.

Dr Ulrik Kesmodel, of Aarhus University Hospital said, “Although we were not surprised that coffee consumption appears to affect pregnancy rates in IVF, we were surprised at the magnitude of the effect.”

He said that the effect of too much coffee on IVF treatment was comparable to the detrimental effect of smoking. Caffeine content could be the reason for the effects but the researchers are not sure. He said that five percent of the total 4,000 women interviewed said that they drank five or more cups of soffee in a day.

He said that the women who drank less coffee than that did not see any effect on the chances of success of the fertility treatment.