Should You Sweat it Out?

Should You Sweat it Out?

By Andrew Coutts

For those of you who do; why do you do it? To lose weight, to improve your mental health or are you just plain competitive?

We all have our reasons. More of us are taking up physical exercise than ever before and we are also scaling up. Marathons, once the domain of the elite sports person are being run by literally thousands all over the world; 40% of whom are women.

We equate fitness and exercise with positivity and good health but is this always the case? If we are trying to conceive should we take out feet off the gas and just relax?

In the latest edition of Creando Familias Head of Nursing at Grupo UR, Bernardo Fernández Martos discusses the relationship between physical exercise and fertility.

Bernardo describes a range of individual and societal reasons for the increase in women taking up exercise – Social mores, legislation, medical controls, popular culture and advertising all play a part but he highlights suggestions and concerns that excessive activity may in fact have a negative effect on fertility. As Bernardo points out these negative effects can manifest themselves as menstrual disorders as well as ovulatory dysfunction and even have negative effects on oocyte quality.

Such effects may well be related to the intensity, volume, and type of physical activity carried out but awareness of the link between physical assertion and fertility health is key.

On the flip side there are numerous studies which demonstrate the importance of physical exercise aimed at lowering the body mass index in patients with obesity and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Studies also point to the role exercise plays in increasing success rates following assisted reproduction treatments; enabling a higher rate of embryo implantation and subsequent pregnancy.

Click here to read more about the pros and cons of exercise in relation to fertility and to access the latest copy of Creando Familias.