Planning a Baby? Skip the Marathon

A recent research reports that “normal, non-obese women who want to become pregnant should stick to moderate aerobic exercise”  and that vigorous exercises like running, fast cycling and aerobics can lead to lower fertility rates in normal-weight women, but not overweight and obese women.

So if you are of normal weight and is planning to have a baby, you may want to lessen the time you are on the road or races.  Some doctors recommend to get a moderate aerobic exercise instead, like an easy 30 minute walk everyday.

It was noted that other studies showed that “intense workouts disturb women’s monthly menstrual cycles and lead to a lack of ovulation and even the absence of menstrual periods”.  This may contribute to the decrease in fertility among active women.

In our case, Quennie was not actively running when we decided to have a baby.  But she was still running 10Ks then.  She was even able to finish a 16K without us knowing that she was already 1 month pregnant.  It was one race where she was unusually slow and grumpy.  I should have read the signs.

 

Tags: Planning a Baby, Pregnant Running, running and pregnancy, Running Women