A new study from US suggests that workaholic women and gym regulars who routinely lift heavy loads may find it hard to get pregnant than women who don’t.
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The researchers conducted the study by analyzing data from the Nurse’s Health Study, involving nurses working outside the home, who are trying to get pregnant.
Scientists found that nurses who worked more than 40 hours per week needed 20 percent more time to conceive than their peers that worked only 21 to 40 hours. Even when researchers excluded women who were on their period (a known fertility impairment), heavy lifting-women still took 33 percent longer to get pregnant.
Lead author Audrey Gaskins said, “Our results show that heavy work, both in terms of physical strain and long hours, appears to have a detrimental impact on female nurses’ ability to get pregnant”. At the 24-month mark, so two years after the study initially began, five percent of women were still trying to conceive.
In this study, about half the women were at least 33 years of age, and almost half of them were overweight. Long work hours and heavy lifting can certainly be two of them, though it has been mentioned that night shifts or constantly rotating schedules do not affect fertility rates.
A number of around 33% reported working for over 8 hours per day, and 40% stated that they were regularly moving heavy objects. About 16 percent of them did not manage it within 12 months, while 5 percent had not conceived following a couple of years. As per analysis, transporting objects weighing 25 lbs.at the minimum for multiple times within the day may prolong the attainment of conception by up to 50 percent. The link between heavy lifting and difficulty in getting pregnant was more noticeable among those classified as obese or overweight women. It is possible that women who struggle to get pregnant happen to choose to work longer hours, or even that elements specific to certain work environments can cause pregnancy to become less likely.
But Ohio State University reproductive health specialist Courtney Lynch argues there might be a simpler explanation for these results.
New research investigates the phenomenon of women in the work place having trouble with pregnancy.
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Women who want to have children should have sex at least twice a week, not only on weekends, she said. Women should also maintain a healthy weight, get enough exercise and avoid smoking and stress.
