Fertility – The Effects Of Weight, Age And Exercise

In today’s age, couples are facing a good number of issues when trying to conceive. The work environment, lifestyle and diet are quite essential factors governing the problem of infertility that many couples now-a-days are dealing with. In this article, we shall analyse the effects of weight, age and exercise on fertility.

Weight and Fertility

Diet is one of the most essential things to take care of when trying to conceive. Maintaining a healthy diet is linked with maintaining a healthy weight. Any woman, at any age, while trying to conceive should first check her BMI (Body Mass Index). It should fall within the ideal limits. If it is lesser of greater than ideal, it may pose problem during conception and pregnancy.

Most women now-a-days are dealing with the problem of high BMI which means excess weight. This problem is either due to hypothyroidism or due to lack of exercise and improper diet. Being overweight can also be dangerous to the baby during pregnancy. It is thus encouraged by most doctors today that one should lose weight and be within the ideal BMI range before conception because weight loss and even weight control is difficult during pregnancy.

For those women whose BMI is lesser than ideal, sometimes anorexia or bulimia is the governing factor. These conditions should be controlled with medical assistance or else they will tend to disrupt menses and thereby cause a problem in fertility.

Age and Fertility

The most fertile period for a woman during which conception is the easiest is her early twenties. However, the ideal age now-a-days according to most surveys in India falls between 25 and 30 years.  Fertility becomes difficult once a woman crosses 35 years of age. After 40 years of age, the chances are drastically reduced as the body progresses towards menopause. It is not only women whose age affects fertility. As men age, they also tend to lose the capability of producing good sperm volume and concentration. The most fertile period for men falls between their twenties and early thirties.

According to a research, it has been estimated that a couple which is healthy and ages less than 30 years has 25 to 30 percent chances of getting pregnant every month.

Exercise and Fertility

Though exercising is an essential for normal well-being and for conception, too much of strenuous exercise can do the opposite. For women, strenuous exercise if performed for more than 1 hour in a day can increase the chances of infertility as the menstrual cycle gets disturbed. Even during pregnancy, one has to take good care of not getting involved in high-impact exercises or activities. Normal exercises and yoga can be followed during pregnancy. When it comes to men, they should also take care not to work out too hard and for too long as it can reduce their sperm count thereby posing a threat to fertility.

Taking care of these three most crucial factors is quite likely to increase your chances of fertility and of healthy pregnancy.

Aditi Tyagi, Editor at Tech-Hunt IT Innovation Pvt. Ltd. loves to read and share about healthcare. Aditi recommends interested readers to check out more interesting women’s health tips at AarogyaData.