This article is Part 2 of a collaboration between myself and a registered dietician, Rebecca Jaspan. To read her tips on fueling fertility from a nutrition standpoint, click here.
Athletes tend to pay very close attention to their health, as they know how much it impacts athletic performance. However when you’re shifting the focus to preparing for conception, the same methods that got you a PR or 1st place in your age category may not be ideal for optimizing your fertility. This is true for both men and women.
An athletic lifestyle can potentially present challenges to fertility, but with careful attention, planning and some lifestyle shifts, most of the time there is no reason someone can’t continue pursuing athleticism at the same time they pursue parenthood. I recommend starting this journey 3-6 months before you would like to begin trying to conceive.
What is the EAM (East Asian Medicine) point of view?
As an acupuncturist and practitioner of East Asian Medicine, I would first look at a patient’s overall health including energy, immunity, mood, sleep quality and digestion. For women, I would also look at menstrual and hormonal signs and symptoms (for example: is your period regular? Is it light or heavy?).
The recommendations your acupuncture practitioner gives would depend on your current “patterns” of disharmony and your underlying constitution. Simply being an athlete who wants to become a parent doesn’t by itself necessitate any changes, however the main things I would advise ALL athletes to think about include:
- Increasing attention to recovery
- Increasing attention to proper fueling
- Taking a closer look at your overall health for signs that you may need to make some shifts- which sometimes includes temporarily scaling back on athletic training
East Asian Medicine (EAM) Theory:
From an East Asian Medicine point of view, strenuously working out on a regular basis can tax the qi, blood, yin and yang energy of the body (discussed more below). If you aren’t appropriately nourishing and balancing out these vital substances to account for all that physical activity, this can result in a variety of symptoms, not just hormonal ones. Additionally, if your natural tendency is already one of deficiency, this can push things even further off balance.
Qi Deficiency:
Qi is the force that energizes and animates all motion- whether it’s the firing of neurons or the flow of blood and fluids through the body.
The main sign that someone is qi deficient would simply be fatigue. It might be that you never feel fully recovered and rely heavily on caffeine to have a “decent” workout. Qi and Yang (described below) are “cousins”- qi is said to be a type of yang energy.
To nourish qi, we recommend qi tonifying herbs as well as foods, and loads of sleep.
Yang Deficiency:
Yang is often compared with “the sunny side of the mountain”- it is an energy which is bright, energetic, loud, hot and thriving. If someone is deficient in yang energy, they may feel cold easily, lack lower body strength or stability (lower back, hips, knees, ankles), women may have a short luteal phase or ovulatory issues and men may suffer from erectile dysfunction.
A few things which nourish yang energy include yang tonifying herbal formulas, foods (for example: cilantro, ginger, garlic and cinnamon), strength training and heat therapy (including moxibustion), as well as acupoints which awaken the yang energy.
Blood Deficiency:
Blood has a very special role in fertility- healthy, sufficient blood is needed for regular periods to occur, for receptive uterine lining and to nourish the developing follicle and sperm.
In EAM, you may be blood deficient if you suffer from fatigue, heavy periods (which may be an initial cause of blood deficiency, and then light periods may be a symptom of), chronic problems with your tendons and muscles and/or anemia (low iron) and insomnia.
In order to re-build the blood, we would recommend blood tonifying herbs and foods which include dark colored foods such as berries, black sesame seeds, red meat, kidney beans, black beans, molasses and Goji Berries. Again, sleep is super important for building blood.
Yin Deficiency:
Yin is the opposite of yang- it is the shady side of the mountain. It is quiet, cool, still and peaceful. Much like qi and yang are cousins, blood and yin are cousins (blood is one of the yin fluids).
Yin deficiency symptoms include feeling hot spontaneously (night sweats or “hot flushes” during the day), lack of sweat, irritability and overall joint pain. Again, insomnia is another symptom as when we can’t experience long periods of deep rest, our bodies can’t replenish yin energy.
For yin deficiency, focus on recovery, especially prioritizing sleep and hydration. A practice to calm the mind such as breathing exercises and meditation can also be immensely helpful.
Summing It Up
Often there is a combination of one or more of these imbalances, and for any of them, increasing rest time and temporarily scaling back on your activity level may make a huge difference if dietary and other lifestyle changes aren’t enough. These lifestyle shifts may end up making you feel better and help your chances of conceiving more quickly, but also help you feel as strong and healthy as possible throughout pregnancy and postpartum (which is very important to both men and women).
There is no one size fits all solution- oftentimes we start with a solid plan of action and tinker with it along the way until the patient is not only feeling relief from symptoms, but objective signs such as menstrual health are in a better place as well. Ultimately, making sure you’re able to continue doing what you love while making space in your life for creating your family should be the shared goal between you and your practitioner.