I'm joining. I'm about to begin my first IVF cycle, after exhausting less invasive options to deal with my infertility. I gave up drinking several times throughout this process, but always came back to it, generally after a particularly crushing negative cycle or major diagnosis. That makes it sound like it was for the emotional crutch, and surely that's part of it, but more than anything is I think it's been an indicator of normalcy for me. My husband and I enjoy drinking, the flavor, the ritual of it all, and it's that feeling of "a nice evening at home" I wanted back more than anything.
Still, alcohol interferes with the liver's role in excreting estrogen, and that's pretty important to keep at healthy levels for me right now. Plus, once I'm on the actual stims protocol, you can't drink at that time. We'll likely be doing several egg retrievals in a row, so it's not like pregnancy is the consideration, just overall health and lessening medication side effects.
Not sure how long we'll be sans alcohol. So far I'm on day... 5 I think. Last drink was a cider on Sunday. At this point, the cost panic of IVF is helping with non drinking compliance, since it made up a major budget item for us ($100-200/month).
Will be glad to have a community going through the non-drinking as well!
Alternatives:
We tend to opt for sparkling mineral water and bitters and/or juices mixed in. We have a soda stream (indefinitely on loan from my MIL), and we add trace minerals drops to get that nice mineral water flavor. Our current juice is tart cherry, although we also like grapefruit and the "super 7 juice" from trader joe's.