am i running too much to conceive?

[camwow]

@theavner Damn, I came here ready to drop a loaded comment but as I read through, everyone has already beautifully expressed what I wanted to say! I love that. OP, I hope you feel equipped to tackle this issue. So much wisdom and kindness in these comments. Good luck to you. (I type this as I am nursing my sweet baby girl to bed, I got pregnant after 4+ years of HA, over exercise, and orthorexia )

 

[ramseysmom]

@sahabds So coming at this a slightly different angle as someone who’s been through a very serious ED and rehab stint and has been in recovery for 6 years. My body does not respond the same anymore to periods of heavy exercise/food restriction. My body “remembers” the period of stress it went through with my ED and over corrects in a sense to avoid going through that again. For me this looks like extreme fatigue, over fixation on food, irregular cycles etc. So even though other people can do x, y, and z and it’s ok, I found for myself a lot of the time it’s not.

I did end up having to do IVF as I had multiple issues. Whether this was because of the ED or not I’ll never know and my fertility doc couldn’t say for sure either. And again this is after 6 years of true stability where I have not struggled with any behaviors. But fertility is complicated and everyone is SO different. Being 22, you are very young still so age is on your side on this sense.

I will mention: my fertility doc refused to start treatment with me for IVF until I started counseling because of my history. Fertility stuff is stressful and she wanted me to have a solid net to catch me. Very smart woman. I would encourage you to look into a therapist even if you end up not having any issues with fertility because you say you still have your moments. For me, the changes that my body has been going through with pregnancy suckkkkkk, even with 6 years of recovery under my belt. I don’t think anyone enjoys the body changes with pregnancy but for people like us it’s like 10x amplified.

Another thing, albeit very shitty, is you’ll likely see your increasing pregnancy weight at your OB appointments. They have “ANOREXIA” written in bold letters on all my charts and paper work and they still fuck it up and I see my weight anyway. I’ve had to root myself solidly in my recovery that I have zero reaction to this. I had to get myself to a point where it’s just truly “a number” with no emotional attachment. That is a very difficult place to get to, but I do feel it is my responsibility to have controlled emotional responses to this as it’s just the reality of health care in the US.

 

[029b10]

@ramseysmom Hey! Everyone’s given really good advice here, but I just wanted to add in that I recently had a baby & opted out of weight checks at my doctor appointments while pregnant. I talked about this with my midwife, explained that it was causing me stress & that I was already exercising moderately and eating a balanced diet, and she put a note on my chart that I don’t need weight checks. There are other ways that they keep track of baby’s growth, and she said we could re-evaluate if any concerns about baby popped up, but we didn’t end up needing to do that. I will note that I did consent to be weighed at the hospital while going in for labor in case they ended up needing it for anesthesia purposes, but I kept my back to the scale.

Even with the note on my chart, I would often have to remind the nurse of this at the beginning of appts when they asked me to get on the scale, which felt a little stressful at first refusing to do what they were asking of me, but then I got more comfortable saying “Oh I don’t do weight checks” and they got used to that & it significantly eased my stress going to doc appts while pregnant. I just wanted to share this because I think a lot of times it doesn’t occur to people that they can opt out of weight checks!

 

[sahabds]

@029b10 thank you so much for this!! it is so nice to know that i can do this. i’m so scared of being weighed when it happens because it’s very hard for me to separate my emotion from the number. i will definitely remember this thank you!

 

[029b10]

@sahabds I totally understand! It’s definitely not the norm but I think it’s worth the hassle of having a convo with your provider & advocating for yourself when you get to that point, especially with your history.

 

[sahabds]

@ramseysmom this is such great advice thank you so much i’m sorry you’ve struggled through it too. that is something i worry about is how i’m going to handle all the body changes and weight gain and potentially seeing that number. it’s terrifying. i’m finally at a place where when i see my number on the scale now, i can recognize that i’m always going to have some emotions surrounding it no matter what it is, but i can acknowledge the feeling and feel it then move on. but i like even better the idea of being able to emotionally detach myself from it completely. it’s definitely way easier said than done but i hope to get to that point someday

 

[solitaryman]

@sahabds Giiiiiirl. THROW. THE. SCALE. OUT

Seriously, it’s the only way and it’s still challenging.

 

[perez1001]

@ramseysmom As someone 5 weeks pp who has a long ED history, some doctors are actually sensitive to this. OP, I encourage you be open about your history and persistent in what your needs are. Most of the time the weight taken at OB appointments is not absolutely necessary. They only took mine once theoguh my whole pregnancy and basically went by how the baby was growing. Baby is here and perfectly fine.

 

[amygal]

@sahabds Is there something in particular that you’re training for to be running that high of a volume? If you’ve been running 80+ weeks for years, then by this point your body has likely developed adaptations to handle the load, but I also understand how complex that can be while recovering from an ED. Theoretically, as long as you’re still having a cycle and ovulating, you should be able to get pregnant… but I would still perhaps consider going into an “off season” and dialing back the mileage to around 45-50 and adding in cross training or just focusing on one long run a week, unless you have a race to consider. I’d also think about talking to a therapist if you don’t already. they can help you develop a healthy relationship around fueling for your running volume without going down the scary road of counting calories (that volume of running needs a LOOOOOTT of food and most of us are under fueling). Regardless, I wish you luck and hope your journey is short! Signed, a (mediocre) ultra runner

 

[sahabds]

@amygal i think part of it may still have ties to the ED as much as i hate to admit it, which is a whole complicated thing in itself because i convinced myself for so long that i had to do 10-12 miles a day to “out do” my mom as some form of like one upping her because she was a main cause of the ED (long story though). so i definitely agree with you that i should dial back. i’m not training for anything in particular, but i find that longer runs help quell my anxiety more. but i need to find other coping mechanisms because i know that inevitably during pregnancy i will not be able to keep up this level of mileage or at least not the whole time. i do get therapy and am actively working on this, so i may try to use trying to conceive as extra motivation and reallyyyy cut back on my miles because i don’t calorie count right now (but i used to, and my ED almost killed me from that) so i really have no way of knowing if im fueling “exactly” enough, im probably not though. i just go off of when i feel full. i’m definitely gonna keep working on all this. thank you!!

 

[tropicalbaby]

@sahabds I was averaging 60 miles a week and was having trouble getting pregnant. Then I started going to acupuncture and she told me that the soreness from my muscles (even if I didn’t feel sore) was making my body focus on recovering those muscles therefore blood flow was going to the muscles to heal them. Instead, when trying to conceive, you want blood flow to go to your ovaries. I cut back my mileage and listened for what the doctor said and I got pregnant a month later. Once you’re pregnant you’re going to need to cut back on running anyway (sometimes whether you like it or not, I’ve been very nauseous so it’s difficult to run) so why not start a little early?

 

[jidalbc]

@sahabds Being slightly anemic before you even get pregnant is a disaster waiting to happen. Get your iron under control before anything else, even if it requires infusions. A baby puts very high iron demands on the body.

 

[sherithorb]

@sahabds I cut down on running when TTC. I also struggled badly with anorexia for years. I went from 70ish mpw to 30 and I believe it helped. My body also thanked me for it as well because I think I needed to cut back and didn’t realize it.

 

[bymy45]

@sahabds This is a really high volume, and it’s going to need to come down in pregnancy, so I’d think seriously about bringing it down before hand in hopes that the reduced stress (because running is stress!!) helps your body ovulate more regularly/quickly, since that is a pretty long cycle. You should ask be in close contact with your ED team, but if you’re barely at a healthy weight in my non-medical opinion it might really help to gain a little extra in preparation for pregnancy. Just like your mileage is going to need to come down, your weight is going to need to come up, and having a little extra insurance policy may help your cycles shorten up a bit.

 

[spread_the_gospel_online]

@sahabds I would try to increase body fat if you can! That should help with straightening out your periods. It would be helpful too to see what’s going on with your hormones. I’d go to an endocrinologist and also get Inito, you pee on it daily and it measures estrogen progesterone LH and something else I can’t remember. Would tell you if you have a long or short luteal phase and better pinpoint your exact reason for not getting pregnant. Like are you no ovulating, or is it low progesterone which would make it hard to implant etc?

Not really mentioned here is that you should see a pelvic floor PT for your vaginismus if you are not already! And also, I hear you in exercising to reduce anxiety. Maybe you could walk or lift weights? It would be good to balance the running.

Lastly, have you thought about reaching out to those who have treated your ED in the past during pregnancy? It would be good to have their support as your body changes and you physically will be unable to run such high mileage weeks at some point.

 

[sahabds]

@spread_the_gospel_online yeah i actually saw a fertility dr yesterday and he’s ordering a bunch of tests to have done! and yes i’ve had that mentioned to me multiple times to look into pelvic floor PT which i’m def open to im just scared and those are all very good ideas thank you so much!

 

[vatsg]

@sahabds I struggled to conceive and was told by the doctor to stop running, but actually our issue was male factor so nothing to do with my body or running.

However - are your periods very light? I had super light periods and they did some tracking cycles to measure my lining and it was a bit too thin to conceive.

If your periods are fine I wouldn’t worry about it, but if not, reducing the running load might help your luteal phase.

I would also relax on the running, and I know how frustrating it is though, I cried when the doctor told me to stop running

Everyone’s body is different though and I do know plenty of people that conceive and run a lot, I just had a bad experience unfortunately

 

[sahabds]

@vatsg my periods are usually about 5 days long, first 2-3 days are pretty heavy, then it lightens up the last 2-3. i think this is pretty normal? i def may look into seeing a doctor if we continue with no luck though.
yes omg it’s so painful to stop or lighten the running, i had to stop running for about 7 months when i was hospitalized for my ED, so it’s even harder now for me to stop because i never wanna have to go through that again. that being said my mom is also a runner and she struggled to get pregnant until she took time off running for an injury and then bam! pregnant. so if im anything like her maybe really adjusting the running will help me… it’s just a lot easier said than done

 

[vatsg]

@sahabds You could be ok then if it’s not affecting your cycle too much, my ovulation was very late and my luteal phase was a bit short which wasn’t helping. I think my estrogen wasn’t getting high enough, hence the late ovulation and then as a result of low estrogen I think this was affecting my luteal phase. I think extreme exercise can impact hormones in some people. But moderate exercise is all good.

Good luck with it, it is stressful trying to conceive. I’m currently 14 weeks after 4 years of trying and I have finally built back up to a 5km jog

 

[stephenmendes]

@sahabds Have you ever been on the pill? It took me a while to get my period after I came off the pill, and then my cycles were irregular/long and I just so happened to be marathon training at the time. After I ran the marathon (October 2019) we tried for a few months with no success. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I got injured (stress fracture, January 2020) and obviously was not running - I got pregnant in February. People close to me speculated that my running and training were affecting my cycle, but I didn’t want to hear that then. I’m not sure if it truly was, but that was an undeniable change in my lifestyle.

I would also look deeper into your nutrition and make sure you are taking a prenatal/folic acid. Vitamin D and choline are also important for egg quality. Not medical advice, just things I’ve learned on my own journey trying to get pregnant with our second. Speaking with your doctor would certainly be the best option, and perhaps some labs to take a closer look at things. Good luck