stretchygirl

Hi folks,

I’m new here, & about to post on the hot yoga & ivf thread but I found this one…

As a lover of Bikram and someone who’s been on a fertility journey for three years, I’ve done an awful lot of research.

I’ve been told to steer clear of hot yoga while trying to conceive by fertility experts and by one of the fertility books – ‘The Fertility Diet’ (though I’m not a big fan of that book).

For women, the main reason we are advised to steer clear of it is because of basal temperature. Basically, if you chart your temperature every day for a month & also do ovulation tests, you’ll see that you release an egg on your very coldest day of the month and only on that one coldest day – if you mess with your temperature, you may not release that precious egg, or not release it at the optimal time.

The temperature dip that initiates ovulation is scientific fact. There isn’t any research on whether hot yoga stops ovulation happening – but it seems like common sense to avoid it at least around the time of ovulation.

Of course there will always be some women who get pregnant if a man across the road sneezes, but for those of us struggling to conceive, it’s no harm having all the info so we can make informed decisions.

Both doctors and yoga teachers need to focus more on the info IMHO. Doctors often seem to tell us what to do, without giving us the reasons why – and that leads to confusion, doubt and following the advice of the uninformed.

On the other hand, I believe my Bikram teachers need to smarten up a bit – all I’ve heard from them regarding bikram & conception is platitudes regarding feel good hormones & how other women have been fine. They work with a system which uses temperature – yet they don’t understand the importance of basal temperature in a woman’s cycle? Ignorance posing as expertise, I’m afraid.

(BTW, in every other way, I’ve found Bikram great, but fertility is too important to listen to someone who does not have enough training in this area).

Another tip – one of the reasons the docs tell us to cut down on exercise while trying to conceive is that eostrogen is stored in fat cells, so it’s good to have a few of them to spare!!

I’m 5″4 & a mere 115lbs narturally, so I’m tucking into a pizza right now – doctor’s orders! 😀