Drinking two cups of tea daily may help increase a woman`s chances of becoming pregnant, a new study has revealed.

It found women were 27 per cent more likely to become pregnant if they regularly drank tea compared with those who did not, the Daily Mail reported.

On the other hand, the same research also revealed that consuming two cola-style fizzy drinks daily apparently reduces a woman`s prospects of conceiving - and it makes no difference if the cola is a diet or sugary version.

Women who drank these soft drinks at least twice a day cut their chances of becoming pregnant by 20 per cent.

There was no effect on the chances of pregnancy for women who chose to drink coffee.

The study took into consideration a group of 3,600 women who were actively trying to have a baby.

The study`s author, Professor Elizabeth Hatch, of Boston University in the United States, wanted to find out if caffeine intake had any impact on women trying for a baby.

Although there have been other studies on the subject, their results have not been conclusive.

Prof Hatch observed each of the volunteers for a year. Danish women were chosen for the research as every Danish citizen is given a civil registration number at birth, allowing health officials to recruit and then screen individuals through the Internet.

The women, with an average age of 28, formed the largest group ever studied to evaluate a link between caffeine consumption and pregnancy.

`We found that women who drank tea two or three times a day did have a 27 per cent increased chance of becoming pregnant. We don`t know how they took the tea or if they added milk or lemon, but they had this increased chance of getting pregnant over women who did not drink tea at all,` Prof Hatch said.

Green tea, such as that being picked in this field in Japan, was not found to increase a woman`s chances of getting pregnant

`It may be linked to caffeine but clearly there may be other factors linked with the women`s lifestyle or there may be beneficial properties in tea itself.`

`I think drinking two or three cups of tea a day for anyone wishing to get pregnant will be fine. I would love to say tea is a miracle cure to get pregnant but that is not realistic. There may be other factors. The tea drinkers tended to be older women and there may be something else in their diet or lifestyle that helped.

`Tea contains a lot of antioxidants which are very good for male and female fertility,` she added.

Source: ANI
Image: Flickr/creativecommons psd