Is exercise bad for follicle growth?

[YearningHeart]

Hello ladies,

I am currently taking Gonal F dosage 225 injections. Today is day 12 of taking Gonal F injection. In my last scan which was 4 days ago, the doctor said I had 3 follicles on right and 6 on the left, the size were 10mm.

I didnt know there is certain things you should/shouldnt do whilst taking the Gonal F! I was just searching on the internet and it says you should avoid exercise - I did heavy exercise for 3 days in a row along with lots of walking!!

Now Im so so so worried now, is it true I am supposed to rest? When I took the Gonal F my weight went up so I did lots of exercise and was on low carb diet. I dont want to mess up the growth of the follicles. I have another scan on Wednesday. Please share you advice or experience.
xx

 

[lexus15]

Hi Yearningheart,

I'll be interested to know any answers to this, as I'm currently down regging for IVF & due to start stimming on Wed & like you do a lot of exercise! We are self funding & I don't want to ruin any chances we may have.

I read another post that said it was bad to do regular exercise before egg collection as it deviated blood away from the ovaries!.I was under the impression that blood & oxygen was transported around the WHOLE body when we exercised not just to our ovaries!

 

[ANGEL223]

Gentle exercise is ok but best to avoid anything too strenuous during stims. Its possible for follicles to burst and ovaries to twist over. I did jog gently and it didnt do any harm.

 

[bunyhuny]

I do a lot of walking on the weekends. It's one of my favorite things to do in the evenings with DH, and my RE said it's totally okay. DH and I went on a nice 3-4 mile walk Saturday evening and it was lovely! Felt good to get out of the house and get some exercise! I also do yoga, but figured all that twisting and turning couldn't be good for growing ovaries, so I stopped that when I started stimming and am holding off on restarting until after transfer. I don't know about jogging or anything strenuous.

 

[YearningHeart]

Thanks ladies for the reply. I spent quite few hours searching on this and in most places it says that you shouldnt do heavy exercise, just light exercise and walking is alright. So I went for a walk today by myself which was really nice, Iv not been a long walk alone for a while now. I was just pondering on life and IVF etc. it was a nice time to myself

bunyhuny - I like walks with DH too, I prefer morning walks especially in a park.

 

[PinkPeony]

I think they just warn about exercise bc of what Angel said about they ovaries twisting if you're over stimulated. I don't think it's related to follicle growth. You might have the same issue as me - I was a bit too oversuppressed from the BC so my eggs grew a bit slower. I seem to have a good batch now after stimming longer than expected. Good luck!!

 

[YearningHeart]

pinkpeony - How long was your stimming for? Are you doing IVF?

 

[PinkPeony]

pinkpeony - How long was your stimming for? Are you doing IVF?

Yup. I think I had 11 days in the end. I thought they'd tell me to do one more day and trigger tomorrow but they called me a while ago and told me to trigger tonight. I was in everyday for scans and it was looking like very little was happening till around day 8. After that they started growing a lot faster. I used gonal f too.

 

[YearningHeart]

Ohh thats cool. So when is your egg collection? What dosage were you on Gonal F.
Today is Day 14 of Gonal F for me! I have a scan tomorrow and I hope they dont tell me that the follicles are still small!

I seriously do not understand these injections! Sometimes it hurts like crazy and at times it feels like nothing. I sit in the same place, same time everything same so its strange it feels different each time. My cetrotide felt like nothing today. x

 

[PinkPeony]

Ha! I know! I'm so ready to be done with them. I feel like they hurt more now but maybe I'm just over it.
How often are you having scans?
I'm doing 200iu of gonal f, but today when I trigger I'm supposed to do a big dose of 450 along with 2 ovidrel.

 

[YearningHeart]

Well Iv had 3 scans already.

Scan 1 - After 26 days of Microgyon tablets
Scan 2 - After 5 days of Gonal F
Scan 3 - After 5 days of Cetrotide
Scan 4 - After 14 days of Gonal F & 10 days of Cetrotide (Tomorrow)

*All the scans were withing 3 weeks, so roughly after every 5/7 days I would have a scan and I had a blood test at the end of every scan (Talking of blood test that reminds me - Iv had soo many blood tests that you would think by now I am used to it BUT every time I go for blood tests I dread it

I was doing 150 dosage of Gonal F but for the past few days I have been doing 225 dosage of Gonal F

So today you are doing 450 dosage of Gonal F, is that just for today? or are you going to take that dosage for few more days?

 

[PinkPeony]

Nope that's it. Took it with the trigger shot. I guess it gives one last boost to the follicles before ER.