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. 2021 Mar 8;18(5):2718.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052718.

Physical and Sedentary Activities in Association with Reproductive Outcomes among Couples Seeking Infertility Treatment: A Prospective Cohort Study

Siret Läänelaid  1   2 , Francisco B Ortega  3   4 , Theodora Kunovac Kallak  5 , Lana Joelsson  5 , Jonatan R Ruiz  3   4 , Julius Hreinsson  6 , Kjell Wånggren  5 , Anneli Stavreus-Evers  5 , Ruth Kalda  1 , Andres Salumets  7   8   9 , Signe Altmäe  8   10   11
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Physical and Sedentary Activities in Association with Reproductive Outcomes among Couples Seeking Infertility Treatment: A Prospective Cohort Study

Siret Läänelaid et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the association of physical activity (PA) with assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment and pregnancy outcomes among couples seeking infertility treatment.

Methods: This prospective cohort study was carried out among 128 infertile individuals (64 couples), entering the infertility clinic for ART procedures. Baseline PA (before entering any treatment) was assessed using accelerometry for both women and men. For every couple the infertility treatment outcomes were recorded.

Results: The couples that required invasive ART procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) spent less time in vigorous PA (-73 min/week per couple, woman + man) than those couples who became spontaneously pregnant after entering the study (p = 0.001). We observed no significant associations between the time spent in physical activities and positive pregnancy test or live birth.

Conclusions: Our results do not support a positive nor negative relation between the time the couples spent in physical activities and the chances of getting pregnant or having a baby among patients seeking infertility treatment. However, couples undergoing invasive ART procedures did less vigorous PA than couples that became spontaneously pregnant, suggesting that PA may interfere with their reproductive health.

Keywords: assisted; exercise; infertility; reproductive health; reproductive techniques; sedentary behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Physical and sedentary activity levels (expressed as z-scores, means and 95% confidence intervals) of the couples (accumulated time, i.e., sum) in those who needed invasive assisted reproductive techniques (IVF and ICSI) compared with those couples that became spontaneously pregnant. * Sedentary time score is interpreted opposite to the rest of the activity indicators. Differences between groups were analyzed by ANCOVA adjusting for couple age (sum of the woman and man ages) and accelerometer-registration time (sum of the woman’s and man’s registered time). PA–Physical activity, MVPA–Moderate to Vigorous PA, CPM–counts per minute.
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