Fertility Road Issue 44 May/June 2018

BODY
Your weight can affect your fertility and
depending on which type of exercise you
do, it could be detrimental to your fertility
chances. But also, there are actual exercise
regimes that enhance your fertility too. So, if
you need to lose weight to get fertility fit, I'll
explain which exercises are good for fertility,
but first let's review how your weight affects
your fertility.
If you and or your partner are experiencing
infertility, it is advisable to be as healthy as
you can be, to get the best out come from
any fertility treatment and to have a healthy
pregnancy. The NHS link exercise to fertility
and research shows that if you have a healthy
BMI (body mass index) between 20-25 BMI, you
can improve your chances to conceive. If you
are under or over weight this can affect your
ability to conceive.
Obese women are less likely to become pregnant
through IVF and assisted reproduction.
Carrying excess weight can affect the function
of the ovaries, due to changes in hormones
and metabolism rate. Obese women have less
success with assisted fertility treatment, because
of the poor response to fertility drugs that
stimulate ovulation. The same can be said for
being underweight, as this can also affect your
hormones too and impact your fertility.
Maintaining an optimum weight is good for
both partners experiencing infertility, and
this has been the current focus within NHS
proposals. In the South West of England,
they propose to refuse NHS funded
IVF treatment, if the male partners
have a BMI of 30 plus. As 30 plus
BMI, is classed as medically
obese and could affect fertility
chances. The proposal by
the clinical commissioning
group, is to change NHS
funded fertility treatment
policy, to ensure men get
to a healthy weight, before
the NHS fund investigations
and fertility treatments with
their partners.
So, which type of exercise
workouts enhances fertility?
Moderate exercising, rather than excessive,
exhausting workouts, are likely to be the most
appropriate type of activity, for healthy men and
women trying to conceive. Studies found that
women who performed high-frequency, highintensity
exercise had a lower rate of fertility.
A cohort study was carried out by the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, led by Dr
Gudmundsdottir and his team. Which investigated
the association between the levels of physical
activity, and the groups fertility rates against the
parity (number of children) they had in a group.
Over 24,000 women participated, and women were
excluded who had conditions that were known
to affect their fertility, such as poor health, and
fertility problems. As the study attempted to make
their findings relevant to healthy women. Their
levels of exercise were assessed and categorised as:
• Never
• Less than once a week
• 2-3 times a week
• Almost every day
Along with the frequency of exercise, the intensity was
also categorised as: ‘taking it easy’, ‘loss of breath’ and
‘to exhaustion’. The group’s fertility was assessed at
the follow-up assessments, where the women reported
on: their age they had children; and the number of
children they had; and whether they had difficulty
conceiving within one year of trying for conception.
Other factors that affect
fertility were considered in
the study to include:
• Age
• Marital status
• Body mass index (BMI)
• Smoking
• Alcohol consumption
The fertility status of the group were compared and
the results showed that “Increased frequency and
intensity of physical activity was associated with
increased infertility” Results showed that “women
who were active on most days of the week were
3.2 times more likely to be infertile than inactive
women. Women who exercised ‘to exhaustion’ were
2.3 times more likely to be infertile than women
who said they ‘take it easy’”.
The researchers concluded that “fertility is
negatively affected by physical activity of an
extreme intensity and frequency”
Studies show that highintensity,
prolongs
strenuous workouts can:
• Increase cortisol levels
• Lower thyroid hormones
• Affect metabolism
• Disturb ovulation
• Menstrual cycle
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