diff --git a/scraibe/email_sender.py b/scraibe/email_sender.py
index b823039..f0cf3db 100644
--- a/scraibe/email_sender.py
+++ b/scraibe/email_sender.py
@@ -430,6 +430,13 @@ def create_transcript_docx(
     _configure_base_font(doc)
     _configure_section_margins(doc)
 
+    # Remove the default empty paragraph so line numbering starts
+    # at the first real line of content (Word counts paragraphs, not text lines).
+    if doc.paragraphs:
+        p = doc.paragraphs[0]
+        if p.text.strip() == "":
+            p._p.getparent().remove(p._p)
+
     # Enable line numbering for transcript section
     _enable_line_numbering(doc.sections[0])