New Delhi : A new study links moderate wine consumption with higher fertility and ovarian reserve in women. The findings were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual Congress held at Texas and noted that five servings of red wine benefitted the participating women in the study while other alcoholic beverages like beer and white wine were not linked to the same benefits.

It was believed that a compound found in red wine, called resveratrol, may provide these benefits.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy is strictly prohibited across the globe. Resveratrol found in red wine has long been linked to a host of health benefits.

Resveratrol has been linked to promoting good skin, slow doing ageing and provide a dose of antioxidants to the body. Moderate red wine consumption has also been linked to promoting hair and heart health, inducing sleep and guarding against cognitive decline.

Those who drink a moderate amount of red or white wine stand a better chance of conceiving within two months than women who prefer beer and spirits, or do not drink at all.

Of nearly 30,000 pregnant women, researchers found half conceived in the first two months of trying, while 15 per cent had to wait at least a year.

But those who regularly drank wine were almost a third less likely to wait more than a year. They stood 23 per cent less chance of waiting longer than two months before conceiving than teetotallers, or beer or spirit drinkers.

Mette Juhl, of the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, who led the research, said: “It shows a link between fertility and wine drinking.

“We don’t know exactly why wine drinkers become pregnant quicker.

“It could be something in the wine, or, for example, that wine drinkers have healthier diets,” she added.

The women in the study were asked about other factors. Wine drinkers were not significantly more likely to have a healthy body weight or avoid smoking than the others, suggesting these factors were not the reason they fell pregnant quicker.

Fertility expert Peter Brinsden, of the Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridgeshire, which produced the world’s first test tube baby 25 years ago, urged restraint.

“My advice is to be careful,” he said. “More than two glasses of wine a day is almost certain to reduce natural fertility – not just among women.”