Do you like to work out every day and train to exhaustion? The number of fitness studios has increased dramatically in recent years and the fitness trend is now ubiquitous. Advertising posters show jogging, well-trained, super-thin, and successful women. Sports and exercise are known to be healthy and keep you fit. But be careful: too much training can reduce fertility. This is shown by the evaluation of a total of 9 international studies on the subject of sport and infertility from the portal MeineFitness.net.
No longer than 60 minutes per session
It turns out: the dose makes the poison. If you want to have children, moderate exercise is the better choice. Slim women who exercise five to seven times a week are three times more likely to have fertility problems. It is not the type of sport that is decisive, but the intensity with which it is exercised. The longer the workout, the higher the risk. Training for more than 60 minutes per session has been shown to reduce fertility in lean women. The intensity of the workout is also critical. Women who exercise to exhaustion or particularly intensively suffer from infertility more often than women who exercise moderately. However, these rules do not apply to overweight women, because a healthy BMI has a major impact on fertility. The reason for increased infertility with too much exercise is that below a (individually very different) minimum weight, the body, in the spirit of self-preservation, first shuts down reproductive function and eventually shuts down. In the case of an “emergency supply”, pregnancy is too stressful and energy-consuming for an organism, whether due to an eating disorder or increased consumption through too much sport.
Recovery for the body
Top female athletes suffer particularly frequently from cycle disorders so that the path to the desired child can take longer for them. Fortunately, however, the body is capable of regeneration. If a healthy woman reduces the amount of sport she does, her fertility will also increase. By the way: During extreme sports, your body’s core temperature rises up to 39°C! This “sports peak” is visible in the cycle curve, the cyclofertilogram. If you wish to have a child, then do not exercise more than 3 times a week, and in any case not to the point of exhaustion! Do not exercise for more than 60 minutes at a time and eat enough healthy food before and after exercise to replenish your energy needs.
If you are unsure whether your fertility is suffering from too much exercise, you can use OvulaRing. OvulaRing reliably shows you ovulation and your fertile window every cycle. This way you can monitor if your exercise is still healthy and your fertility is not negatively affected.