Green Tea; did it work for you?

[ellebelle]

My first cycle TTC, my CM was non-existant. I'm now starting my second cycle and would like to improve my CM. I've heard that green tea can help. Did it work for you? Any other methods you can suggest?

[Soulmate]

Nope...but I don't seem to have a CM problem but it didn't change it any. Green tea made me ovulate later but I am incredibly sensitive to anything estrogenic.

Someone on FF chased a dose of robitussin down with a glass of iced green tea (non-sweetened) 3 times a day during her fertile period and got pregnant right away after some decently long period of time TTCing. I think it was 3 times a day...I would look at robitussin's dosage requirement.

[e&d]

I think this is an area where different bodies react differently...I'd say it's worth trying for a month and seeing how it goes.

For me, green tea was a lifesaver. Pre-tea, I had 1 day of fertile CM a month...and basically I could just see that there was more of it. It was never stretchy.

Post-tea, I had 3-4 days of fertile CM each month. I had much more fluid and it was a higher quality.

Another thing that really helped...lubricant. I know a lot of people like Pre-Seed; I thought it was majorly overpriced. We used FemGlide (you can get it on drugstore.com) and it worked very well for us. It gets very uncomfortable doing that much BDing dry!

Lastly...there was a study that came out a few months back that drew a connection between green tea consumption and folic acid absorption problems. I talked w/some friends in the medical field about it and they doubted it, but just to be safe...I drank 1-3 cups of green tea per day until I ovulated, and then didn't drink it in the 2ww. Who knows if that made any difference but it made me feel a little better.

[ellebelle]

So Femglide won't kill the sperm?

[ShannonGH]

It was a combo of green tea and Evening Primrose Oil that finally did the trick for me. I went from having zero fertile CM to 2-3 days of fertile CM. Although it still wasn't very much CM, at least it was *some.*

[e&d]

So Femglide won't kill the sperm? Femglide and Preseed are the two brands I am aware of that specifically state they are sperm-compatible. There may be more, and others might not kill them, but these are the 2 I know of that state it directly.

[flygirl]

Green Tea has given me about 4-5 days of fertile CM. It may not be solely the tea - I've added more vitamins & Omega-3 - but since I started drinking it religiously I've noticed continually more CM.

My understanding of the lubricants is that while they're not hostile to sperm, they don't actually help take the place of CM. They're nice for making BDing more comfortable if you're dry, but they dry up too quickly to provide any assistance to the sperm.

[silentbunny]

Okay, I am having the same problem. No CM to speak of, certainly not the lovely EWCM we are all so fond of.

Sooo...how much tea? Iced or hot? When in the cycle? All the time? Just prior to O (which is still very hard for me to predict? I need some direction, please! :D

[aprilshowers]

silentbunny, I tried to drink two cups a day (either hot or iced) between the end of AF and O. And, this probably doesn't need to be said but just in case, decaf only! The caffeine will dry you up.

[angelgirl8]

i don't think the green tea helped me...i used it only for 2 cycles. but i tried grapefruit juice while i was on clomid and that definitely helped my CM problem.

also, drink lots of water!

[papergirl]

my CM was always pretty obvious but for some reason i just *had* to be like everyone else and do green tea to enhance my CM. big mistake.. my CM went into overtime and i was SO wet. it was very gross. so yep, it worked for me thought i didn't need it and stopped quickly after doing it.

[shushyk]

Hi ladies,

Not to scare anyone, but I was reading an article in the baby mag at the dr. office. There are studies that recently came out that said drinking TOO MUCH green tea does not allow your body to absorb folic acide, so if you are drinking it for CM (it helped me) only do it for a few days each cycle.

[AndreaMMS]

It definately worked for me! I would have one (large) glass of hot tea or iced tea a day from the day after AF ended until ovulation. Good luck!

[silentbunny]

Question on this -- I went looking for Green tea in the supermarket, and all of the "interesting" sounding ones were not caffeine free. I understand the notion that caffeine dries you up, and is thus counterproductive...thoughts? It seems like some of the ones you are posting here are caffeinated. For those of you who did the green tea, did you only do decaf?

[aprilshowers]

hey bunny, I know I'm the one who said no caffeine above but, well, to be perfectly honest, I did drink caffeinated green tea. It really doesn't have that much caffeine (I see 12 mg/cup listed on one website). And, like everything else, caffeine will have different affects on different people. It is just a matter of how strict you want to be and experimenting to see how your body reacts to it. Good luck!

[kimthebride]

I can't say for certain, but I did drink a cup of caf-free chinese green tea daily and got pg the 1st time I ovulated.

IMO it can't hurt!

[babylove]

Can anyone recommnend a good brand of decaf green tea? Do you drink it hot or cold?

[kimthebride]

I drank Good Earth Decaffinated Green Tea with 1 Splenda, hot, each evening before bed. All the others I tried did not taste good to me.

[jnshanna]

I'm experimenting with green tea now and I got one of the assorted boxes of Stash green tea. I'm trying the Moroccan mint right now and I'm really liking it. It's nice and smooth. The problem is I'm not sure how much caffeine it has. I can't find any information on caffeine on the labels. :( Generally green tea has a lot less caffeine so I'm not sure if it's a big issue or not. Maybe I'll check out their website.

[flygirl]

A good decaf is Celestial Seasonings' Decaf Mandarin Orchard. I drink this hot, occasionally in the evenings.

I drink a cup or two of caf green tea every morning. Trader Joe's Chamomile Green Tea, Stash's Chai Green Tea, & Celestial Seasonings' Rasberry Gardens are among my favorites.

[flygirl]

An update on Green Tea information (stolen shamelessly from OS (http://www.ovusoft.com/forum/tm.asp?m=1949984&p=1&tmode=1)).

Regarding the "new vitamin" in tea -- if you do a search on "pyrroloquinoline quinone" you'll find plenty of info. It was actually discovered in the 70s, but has recently been "identified" as a vitamin, possibly in the B group.

It doesn't help fertility, however (The mice in the study who were deliberately deprived of PQQ had lower birth rates than normal, but no amount of PQQ improves fertility.)

The authors of the study actually addressed this issue (emphasis mine):
News accounts say it is believed to play a role in fertility. Is that right?
It is right only in the case of "PQQ-deprived mice". But in the case of humans, we should say it is wrong at present, because humans will not become deficient in PQQ if they take ordinary diets.
We don't think that PQQ positively enhances the reproductive performance even in mice. Probably due to shortage of PQQ, pups are likely to be unhealthy in the belly of mothers and after being born.
In addition, humans and mice are vastly different in the pregnancy mechanism; mice give birth to 10 or more pups on one occasion. (The number of pups are decreased in the PQQ-deprived mice.) Therefore, in regard to human fertility, we cannot infer from the data of PQQ-deprived mice.
It's very unlikely to be PQQ-deficient, it's found in many common foods, including cabbage, beans, miso, soybean products, milk, eggs, potatoes, parsley, spinach, peppers, apples, bananas, papayas...as well as teas.

For details and a link to the orginal research, go here. (http://www.brain.riken.go.jp/labs/mdmd/pqq/index-e.html)

As far as green tea helping CF, there haven't been any studies that I know of, but there's a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting the idea, just look around this forum!

And in any case, green tea has been proven to have multiple health benefits, mostly in cancer prevention, so it's a good idea to drink it whatever it may do for your CF. :)

[flygirl]

Some additional info (i.e. more than anyone really ever needed to know about green tea):

First, some additional info on green tea and fertility:
There has been one study involving green tea and fertility, in 1998. No follow-up work has been done. The original paper isn't available without subscription, but here's something that was written about it in Los Angeles magazine (July 2001):
In a study conducted at Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program of Northern California in Oakland, researchers found that women who drank more than one half cup of caffeinated green tea every day doubled their odds of conceiving. No significant association was found for other caffeinated beverages; therefore researchers concluded that a chemical component of tea other than caffeine might have been responsible for the increase in fertility.

Because this directly opposes earlier findings that caffeine can inhibit fertility, the researchers acknowledge that their results may be attributable to green-tea consumption's association with other lifestyle factors that might enhance fertility, as the tea drinkers they studied smoked less, ate less fat, and exercised more often than coffee drinkers (the smug jerks). More research on the tea-conception connection is needed.
Another good assessment of the study is here at ivillage (http://www.ivillagehealth.com/print/0,,124897,00.html?arrivalSA=1&arrival_freqCap=1&pba=adid=6283138).

This study's results also indicated that caffeine use did not inhibit fertility in any way, a finding that many more studies have disputed since then; so without a more controlled study the information isn't very useful, although it is hopeful. It's a shame that 5 years later no-one has followed up on this.

For everything you ever wanted to know about green tea, read this astounding 45-page monograph on green tea (http://www.ardilla.umn.edu/FScN5631/course/outlines/Green_Tea_FR.pdf) (a pdf).

If you don't want to read it, here's some key bits of info from it (all referenced in the original):

The good:
Various studies indicate that green tea and its extracts: contribute to weight loss, protect the immune system, prevent certain kinds of cancer, inhibit bacterial growth, help prevent the flu, help prevent heart disease, may lower cholestorol, reduce cavities, plaque and gingivitis, and definitely have major anti-oxidant properties. And, except for the few cases below, no ill effects of green tea consumption have been found so far (other than problems related to too much caffeine intake).

The bad:
Green tea may prevent iron metabolism (so infants and BF moms should avoid it), green tea is an anti-coagulant and should be avoided by anyone taking warfarin or large amounts of aspirin or similar drugs, it can induce asthma (very rarely), and high doses can cause stomach discomfort and/or diarrhea.

And finally:

It's been suggested that white tea, as it is even less processed that green, would have even more anti-oxidants etc than green; and at least one study has supported that. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/04/000410084553.htm)

And if you look at the studies, many of these studies have been done using supplements (and extracts), so if you don't enjoy drinking green tea, you will get whatever benefits there are from a supplement.

In any case, whatever it does for conception, or CF, it's obviously something we should all be drinking (or taking)!

[SQ2]

bump

[Ericka_Jarett]

I drank green tea (not everyday though) and also used Robitussin for a week. I had a increase in CM, never did have EWCM, but still managed to get pregnant.

[Asha]

hmmmm...i have only once had EWCM. i have started drinking iced green tea in the mornings, so i will have to see if that helps any.

my favorite way to make it is to steep the bag of green tea, add a bit of honey, let it cool down for a few mins, fill a glass with ice, then add the tea to the ice. mmmmm....so refreshing on these hot days.

[jodylovesscotty]

I tried green tea and it really didn't work for me, and I hated the taste of it. This past cycle I took 3 50mg of Evening Primrose Oil and I had 3 days of EWCM where as before I usually had one.

[Asha]

I hated the taste of it.

did you add anything to your tea? i don't really like the taste of a lot of tea. adding honey and/or lemon really improves the flavor.

[Jess71903]

It worked for me one cycle. I had a vary noticible increase in CM the month I was religious about it. If you look at the Celestial Seasons box it compares their tea's caffine content to coffee, sodas, and regular tea (I think) and green tea has less than all of them. FWIW I have tried the CS raspberry and Lipton's....well, something citrus. I forget. My friend had the diet lipton lemon or something like that in the bottle and it was really good. I plan to try that next.

[miaclear]

I just posted that the grapefruit did the trick for me on the CM issue...but I started drinking green tea too....so maybe it was the combination of the two. I hate the taste as well. I bought the gallon jugs of Arizona green tea with honey, filled my glass up with ice and squeezed a half of a lemon in it. It was actually pretty darn tasty.

[Scooter]

my favorite way to make it is to steep the bag of green tea, add a bit of honey, let it cool down for a few mins, fill a glass with ice, then add the tea to the ice. mmmmm....so refreshing on these hot days.
If anyone wants another idea:
In the summer I would make green tea in a big, clear container. You just fill it with room temperature water, hang some teabags in it, and set it out in the sun until it's steeped. I would put several bags of green tea and then a bag of a fruit flavored tea (like a berry tea). The fruit tea sweetened it up and gave it a nice summery taste. After it's steeped, I'd put the container in the fridge & have enough iced tea for several days! :)

[Inda]

IMO, it helps. I certainly notice a difference in my CM when I don't drink it regularly. I usually drink it every moring from CD1 thru CD11-12. The one cycle I decided not to drink it - my CM wasn't as 'plentiful' as the my other cycles have been. Also, if I skip a few days here and there - it has an effect on my CM.