To exercise or not to - TTC

[sidsparrownew]

Can exercise cause stress in the body and therefore prevent pregnancy or cause miscarriage? Hear me out...

For the past three years I've gone through periods of doing strength training and a bit of HIIT and cardio, but after a while my motivation lacks and I do nothing. And for the last 18 months I've been trying for a 3rd baby. I feel like my body hasn't been right, at one point it looked like I was going through early menopause but at last check my FSH was normal and my cycles too now appear normal - I feel like I'm back to my old self, so have really gone for it this month, and hoping that pregnancy happens. But, I really want to start exercising again but I'm terrified that it will put stress on my body, as I feel that my previous hormonal issues (including a misacrriage) was down to stress. So should I just not do anything and wait this out or is there any low stress exercise I could do? Or am I just being silly?

Exercise is great for the body and mind which both typically need to be in good order to conceive, it’s also a great way to combat stress.

Start gentle, daily walks and weight training a few times a week until you find the right balance.

Kindly, you are just being silly! Unless you are underweight or have low body fat, exercise as much as you like.

Thank you, I just also mention that I am in the two week wait. But yes, walking, and start easy. I always go in quite intense for fast results, so makes sense to go in easy.

I run a lot (around 60 miles per week), and had the exact same thoughts / worries. Agree with PP though, there is zero evidence to show that TTC / implantation / miscarriage is negatively affected by exercise. It's actually the opposite, even high intensity stuff! So I would crack on. I keep reminding myself that professional athletes have babies all the time :)

Ps. hope you're staying sane in the TWW @sidsparrownew I'll be in the same place in a week or so. Sending luck!

I think gentle low impact exercise is fine. I have been told that too much high impact exercise can reduce egg quality because the body uses its energy/resources on that instead but I am especially interested in that as fatigue is a thing for me so I have to manage my energy (autoimmune). A younger or fitter person might be less impacted.

Unless you are an elite athlete intensely training to the point of missing periods, then no. It's beneficial to exercise.

Intense exercise is also fine 🤷‍♀️ as a PP said professional athletes wouldn't ever get pregnant... and continue to train (as best they can) through pregnancy!

I'm a very amateur racing cyclist. It was 7 weeks before I realised I was pregnant. I hadn't been actively 'trying' so wasn't tracking periods. Over that time I had a fairly epic high speed crash in a race... admittedly it put pay to a few days training! I carried on training and racing, realised I was pregnant. Never stopped training (I scaled back and just did what my body allowed me to) and raced until about 9 weeks. I had a very easy pregnancy and birth. My son is now 6 and also very healthy. Obviously that's purely anecdotal evidence. But we know how good exercise is for body and mind. It's so important to keep fit and active through pregnancy (if you can).... and particularly important to be as fit as possible going into it.