{"id":139701,"date":"2025-05-28T21:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T21:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139701\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T21:24:14","slug":"should-women-stop-exercising-during-ivf-or-pregnancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139701\/","title":{"rendered":"Should women stop exercising during IVF or pregnancy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should a woman stop exercising while she is undergoing IVF or pregnant?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question which doctors get asked all the time, with most women keen to understand how lifestyle impacts their chance of conceiving or giving birth to a healthy baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Lunchtime Live<\/b><\/a>, National Maternity Hospital Master Shane Higgins said he always encourages his patients to continue exercising after they find out they are pregnant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in the patient\u2019s, in the woman\u2019s best interest to be as fit as she possibly can be,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of patients will stop exercising particularly in the first trimester and I can understand why.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Professor Higgins continued that exercise does not cause women to miscarriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, if you\u2019ve exercised, start bleeding and start having a miscarriage afterwards, you will inevitably blame yourself,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just human nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut exercising is good for you and particularly if you do decide to stop for the first trimester up until week 12, there\u2019s no reason for you not to continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a patient come to me and she jogged in from D\u00fan Laoghaire for an antenatal appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonia O\u2019Sullivan is well known to have continued to compete on the athletics track when she was pregnant. So, it\u2019s not doing you any harm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" A pregnant woman. Picture by: PA Wire\/PA Images.<\/p>\n

When asked if he would also encourage women undergoing IVF to stop exercising, Professor Higgins said his advice they should continue exercising as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cExercise can be a destressor and I think patients have an awful lot going on in their lives when it comes to an IVF journey,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing out and exercising, whether it\u2019s swimming or cycling or doing a class is of enormous benefit to them physically and mentally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What type of exercise?<\/p>\n

When asked whether running is too impactful during pregnancy, Professor Higgins said it depends on the patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do often indicate to patients that as you get bigger in pregnancy and further along, it becomes more and more uncomfortable,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, you do produce an awful lot of progesterone in pregnancy but one of the effects of progesterone is to cause laxity of the ligaments that support the joints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why a lot of patients will complain of pelvic discomfort; if you do an awful lot of running, you might exacerbate that by virtue of that progesterone that\u2019s there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do find you\u2019re getting to a point in pregnancy where running is too much – [there\u2019s] swimming, cycling or a rowing machine, they\u2019re all fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Main image: A woman holding her pregnant belly. Picture by: Tetra Images, LLC \/ Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should a woman stop exercising while she is undergoing IVF or pregnant?\u00a0 It\u2019s a question which doctors get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[1630,105,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-139701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114587570472774167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}