It’s been said it can help you lose weight, improve your brain and heart function, and now red wine is being linked to improved fertility? Tell us more!

Scientists are making the link because wine possesses high levels of resveratrol, an antioxidant which, among other things, can help to address hormone imbalances in women and lower the chances of getting polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). As well as this, a recent study shows it may also help boost fertility.

According to The Times, researchers at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri assessed a group of 135 women, aged between 18 and 44, asking them to keep a diary of their alcohol intake each month, and their ovarian count was measured using an ultrasound. The results showed that women who drank five or more glasses of red wine a week seemed to have a higher number of eggs in their ovarian reserve, even after differences in age and wealth were taken into account. So does this mean red wine can improve our chances of having kids?!

Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Service, told The Times that the results were “interesting”, however he warned that if you are trying to get pregnant, consuming too much red wine may not help as “the exposure of the developing foetus to alcohol may cause irreversible developmental damage, so alcohol consumption should be less than six units [roughly two large glasses of wine] per week for women wishing to conceive.”

In the same vein, Shape reports San Francisco fertility expert Aimee Eyvazzadeh as saying: “You need to drink the equivalent of over 40 glasses of red wine per day to get the dose of resveratrol needed to improve egg health.”

Okay, so while a glass with dinner each evening might not quite have serious health benefits, this does make us feel a little better about that extra glass (or two) of red wine we had on Friday night!