The Link Between Exercise and Fertility

Posted January 17, 2013 in Medical, Women's Health No Comments »
Pregnancy Fitness

Here’s one for the ladies.

There are a number of factors that can affect your ability to create a new life. While most of us have a fair notion of how babies are made, it’s not always as simple as getting busy. There could be all kinds of things standing in your way.

My grandmother once told me that a tipped uterus was causing her problems for months until a doctor suggested that she stand on her head after sex. According to her, it worked like a charm and that’s how my mother was conceived.

The point is that you might be facing something of an uphill battle when it comes to starting a family. And if you’re young and in relatively good health, with no major medical issues barring you from getting pregnant, you might start to wonder why it’s taking so long.

In case you didn’t know, your exercise routine could be to blame, and while this post is written for women, it applies to men too.

Lose Weight, Make Baby

More and more people are becoming aware of the fact that a person’s weight plays a role in their ability to conceive. Being both overweight and under can lead to less than ideal bodily conditions for conception. And while no woman is likely to complain about packing on the pounds in order to conceive, losing extra weight can be a more difficult proposition.

However, a targeted diet plan that includes healthy and nutritious meals in the proper proportions and the addition of an exercise routine could mean the difference between having a baby in your arms this time next year. So here’s how to go about it.

Get Help With Your Pre-Preg Diet and Exercise Plan

You’ll want to start with a visit to your doctor (your physician and your OBGYN should both be adequate, although you may want to see the pair). What you’ll likely learn is that additional exercise is recommended for most people, and this entails half an hour of moderate to intense exercise three to four times a week at minimum.

Everyone is different, so your doctor may choose to adjust this schedule to meet your personal needs, but on average, this route will help you to lose unwanted pounds and improve your overall health and fitness. As a rule, you might want to make your partner undergo the same analysis and start working out regularly since added weight can affect fertility in both men and women.

Don’t Overdo It

But what if you already work out regularly?

If you happen to be a fitness buff, it turns out that you could be doing more harm than good. Women who over-exercise are just as likely to face fertility problems as those that eschew physical activity altogether. Although there’s certainly nothing wrong with a highly active lifestyle, which can help to keep you fit and reduce stress, it turns out that excessive exercise makes for less-than-ideal conditions for conception as surely as sedentary behavior. And again, this applies to men too.

Since you want your body primed to bear a pregnancy, you need to choose a middle ground with a moderate amount of exercise. Rather than going through all manner of medical procedures like hormone shots and sending eggs to the cryobank in anticipation of a surrogate, consider that your relative state of fitness may play a role.

At the least, you’re likely to improve your health and at best your efforts to conceive could pay off.

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