EP25 - Combining running with infertility and IVF

Your Fertility Hub

There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about if you can exercise during infertility and particularly during fertility treatments like IVF and IUI.

In this interview, we chat with Tedi Palmer - an infertility blogger who loves running and endured a 7-year fertility journey, about her journey to motherhood and her opinions on exercise and infertility.

Tedi talks us through her incredible fertility journey and how she went through multiple failed IUIs and IVF cycles, suffered from conflicting advice and multiple tests.

She talks us through her low ovarian reserve and her husband Chase’s low sperm count and motility and how they were offered a place on a clinical trial where Chase was given Zinc and Folic Acid which transformed his sperm count from below normal to over 39 million (normal is over 15 million).

Tedi opens up about her depression and how this was exacerbated by her rounds of depo-lupron and how she received lots of conflicting advice and an insensitive diagnosis from her doctors

“Your egg quality is so bad. I don’t think you’ll ever become a biological mother”

We talk about how she continued running through her fertility journey, even running marathons in and around her IUI treatments and how at times she was told to stop running and tried another exercise like walking, hiking and barre.

She talks about how hard it is to give up exercise when it’s a huge part of your life and how some doctors strictly say no and others say it’s ok. She mentions that studies show mixed results so there isn’t a conclusive evidence base to back up the advice given by doctors.

* Please note this podcast is expressing personal opinions and knowledge around exercise and infertility and is not expressed as medical advice. *

Tedi talks about what helped her cope with her miscarriage, how she educated herself more on her cycles, changed clinics and eventually decided as a couple to take a break and switch gears.

Tedi & Chase switched their mental focus over to getting out of debt, she increased her weight slightly and then ran a half marathon and then did a huge hike. It was at this point that she got a positive home pregnancy test (HPT).

She threw the test in the trash believing it to be a false positive but the next day got another positive. So the bleeding she experienced around the time of her big running events was actually implantation from a natural pregnancy.

Finally, Tedi talks about her blogs and how she now supports women going through infertility on her blog and social media channels.

“If I can run a marathon, I can have a baby!”

And she did both!

For more information on how you can support yourself emotionally through IVF, check out our revolutionary online guide ‘IVF Thrive’. which provides specific support tools and information for each stage of IVF. Packed with video guides, meditations and a huge IVF Toolkit, these unique materials support you through IVF positively and empower you to take charge of your IVF journey.

In this episode:

• Meet Tedi Palmer from Running with Infertility
• Hear about Ted’s 7-year infertility journey
• Learn about their experience of low ovarian reserve and low sperm count and mobility
• Hear how she continued running marathons in and around her fertility treatments
• How she received a lot of conflicting advice about exercise and fertility
• The potential risks of exercise during infertility
• Alternatives exercises to try
• Her personal opinion on the debate about exercise and IVF / IUI
• Her advice to other women feeling torn by wanting to exercise and the general advice to stop all exercise
• Her natural conception when she was running a marathon
• How infertility has left its mark on her “Infertility PTSD’ she calls it

You may also like:

• EP24 - Quick guide to your fertility diet
• 5 tips to prepare you emotionally for IVF
• 50 tips for IVF

Links mentioned in the podcast:

• Running with infertility blog
• Running with infertility on Instagram
• Tedi’s blog on exercise and infertility
• FAZST study at the University of Utah into the benefits of Zinc and Folic Acid for sperm count and mobility
• Your Fertility Toolbox - Free resources, tools and exclusive community for emotional support during infertility
• IVF Thrive online support course

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