Drinking black coffee in the morning may help to improve male fertility, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Researchers at Brazil’s University of Sao Paulo worked with 750 men who were preparing to undergo a vasectomy, the male contraceptive surgery typically performed in an outpatient setting with local anesthetic.
Participants were divided into four groups based upon coffee consumption. The first group did not drink any coffee; the second group drank between one to three cups of coffee a day; the third group drank four to six cups; and the fourth group, the heavy coffee drinkers, drank over six cups of coffee a day.
Researchers found that those who drank one to three cups of coffee a day had a higher sperm quality than those who did not drink any coffee.
The caffeine in coffee is thought to improve sperm motility, helping the sperm to swim faster. Researchers think that the increased motility may help improve chances of success during in-vitro fertilization.
Excessive coffee drinking, however, can increase the risk of stroke by damaging the walls of the blood vessels.