A lot of people struggle to conceive a baby. It is truly debilitating situation to be in. Also, more and more people tend to have babies later in life, which is slightly more difficult. However, scientists from the University of Queensland say that there is a relatively easy way for women to boost their fertility – start exercising.
More and more people are facing fertility problems, but in some cases physical exercise can be that solution that people are looking for. Image credit: Aditya Romansa via Wikimedia)
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In this day and age it seems like exercise is the answer to everything. It improves your longevity, gives you more energy, helps coping with depressions, reduces the likelihood of cancer, boosts mental health and gives all kinds of other benefits. But that’s not all – scientists are finding new ways that exercise can help you all the time. Now Australian researchers compared the effectiveness of standard fertility treatments, such as IVF or ovulation induction, to simple exercise. And guess what – they found that they are pretty much the same. The study included data about reproductive health and exercise from the last two decades.
Exercise is affordable. You can just go out of your house and run right now. If it is not a good choice for you, you can do a lot of exercising in your room. It literally costs nothing. That is why scientists now are thinking that exercise could be an affordable and feasible alternative or complementary therapy those expensive therapies. Scientists did not find any particular exercise to be more effective than others – as long as you’re moving, you’re going to be getting the benefits. Scientists also found that exercise increases live birth rates too and other studies revealed that babies of physically active women are usually much healthier. But what should you do if you’re a woman trying to get pregnant?
Scientists say that there is still a need for more studies to confirm this effect and create guidelines to women trying to get pregnant. Dr Gabriela Mena, author of the study, said: “Aerobic training alone or in conjunction with strength training, but even moderate increases in physical activity—such as increasing the step counts—seemed to improve reproductive health outcomes. We believe that a combination of aerobic and resistance training is good for improving reproductive health”. Scientists don’t want to recommend a specific type of exercise now, but simply moving more is a good idea for many reasons.
Scientists are thinking about the next stage for their research. They want to study the relation between women with fertility problems and exercise. Do they exercise already? If they don’t, what kind of exercise would they like to do? And what amount of exercise would bring the desired results?
Source: University of Queensland