u/Background_Day_3596

I (w35) have been running on and off since my early 20s. In my 20s I would always let me talk into signing up for a 5-10K race and then start running to train and after the race I would stop again and not run for 1-2 years at all.

When I met my partner 4 years ago who is doing races with his family twice a year I always signed up for those as well so I always did a 10K race in spring and another 10K in the fall. Which kept me accountable all year round so I didn‘t stop running after the races like I used to. Since I am and have always been a very slow runner I set myself the goal of running a 10K in under 60 minutes which I managed last fall. Then instead of our usual 10K this spring my partner and I signed up for a half marathon this spring which I initially had the goal to finish in under 2:15h. But then we started doing IVF in March, I got pregnant but unfortunately had an early miscarriage a few weeks before the race so I just went in with the aim of finishing and still did a lot better than expected finishing in 2:16h. Automatically I wanted to set the next goal which would either be a full marathon or a faster 10K or half marathon but I kind of think I should take it slower for ttc reasons.

Over the last 3 years I always trained with Runna for all my races, doing 3 runs a week plus road cycling 1-2 times a week. For strength and mobility I do pole dance twice a week. Never had any injuries or problems at all in the last 3 years apart from a broken toe from slamming my foot into the pole during a pole dance class but that healed up nicely.

Since we‘re now continuing with embryo transfers I want to dial down my training load a bit to give my body the best chance at getting and staying pregnant. My doctors keep telling me that I can continue doing what I have been doing exercise wise and my hormones look all fine and not like I’m overtraining but I still feel like maybe the training load does play a role in our unexplained infertility diagnosis. I now canceled my Runna subscription and decided to not sign up for the 10K in fall. But now I find it so hard to motivate myself to even go out to run. I still want to continue running because it helps me a lot with my mental health during ttc/IVF but I feel like the missing structure which I got with Runna and not having a goal makes it so hard for me to actually go out and run.

I still go to pole dance classes twice a week and road cycling once on the weekends but really just for fun and low intensity so ideally I think 1-2 easy-ish runs a week would work fine without being too stressful for my body. Idk why I find it so hard to just do that when motivation was never really a problem for me in those past 3 years.

What does your running schedule look like when you‘re not training for any race specifically and also not trying to get better/faster? So basically when you‘re not pushing yourself?

And if anyone has been in a similar position with trying to cut back for ttc/IVF how did you balance the mental health benefits running can give you especially in such a hard time versus the stress it puts on your body?

Me (w35) and my partner (m34) have been ttc since January 2025 and decided to switch to IVF after 3 rounds of timed intercourse and 3 rounds of IUI had failed. We both went through basic fertility check ups (cycle monitoring, blood work and a HyCoSy on my side and two semen analysis on his side) where everything came out clear. My AMH is 4.3, so on the higher side for my age. His motility (34 % before prepped for IUI but 95% after wash for IUI) and morphology (3 % in the last IUI report but 5 % in all previous reports) were on the lower end of normal but since he always had a good quantity (114 mio) the doctors said not to worry and go for IVF instead of ICSI.

I had one ER in March (5 eggs retrieved, 4 fertilized, 4 „good quality“ blasts). I had some big leading follicles and the smaller ones weren’t able to catch up that’s why I only got 5 eggs retrieved despite good AMH. Since we are in Germany PGT-A isn‘t an option unfortunately. I got pregnant from our fresh transfer with an initial beta of 44 8dp5dt which unfortunately didn’t rise so it ended in a chemical pregnancy. Second FET was a natural modified (ovidrelle trigger & progesterone suppositories) which didn‘t implant.

I‘m unsure if I should just try a third FET or demand more testing. My clinic wants to go with a third FET. Because they say with untested embryos at my age it were most likely chromosomal abnormalities.

A bit more background on my cycle: I took BC from when I was 15 to when I was 19 and after stopping BC it took my body 10 months to have a period again and for the following 2 years it was very irregular with months of no periods. Then when I was in my mid 20s I had two years when I had no period because of an eating disorder. Again it took over a year for my cycle to get regular again after I got my period back. For a long time I then had cycles that were 32-35 days long but since about 3 years my cycles have been 29 days pretty much every single cycles until we started fertility treatment when trigger shots and progesterone would cause shorter or longer cycles. I‘m not overweight, work out very regularly (maybe a bit too much at times of half marathon training blocks but currently trying to limit it), no excessive hair growth or acne and BBT & LH strips showed ovulation every time so PCOS was ruled out.

I used to have very heavy periods but since my cycles have regulated to 29 days my periods also got less heavy and I would now consider them normal. I have never had any problems with painful periods. Most cycles I don‘t feel any cramping whatsoever. But I do tend to have diarrhea a lot during my cycles basically throughout all of my luteal phase and sometimes also a couple of days during the follicular phase. Not even taking progesterone suppositories really did anything to change the luteal phase diarrhea. But no bloating along with it. And it’s also not the stomach bug kind of diarrhea that comes with urgency. My bowl movements are just pretty soft. My mom used to have very heavy and very painful periods but never got diagnosed with anything which is why I‘m considering endometriosis. My doctor said up until now that a lap wasn‘t necessary because I had no painful periods.

Additionally and I have no idea if this could be in any case related but I‘ve been struggling with severe itching in my labia basically ever since I was a teenager. I‘ve had so many gynecologists and dermatologists look at it and they all ruled out yeast infections, BV, any STIs, lichen sclerosus, eczema etc. and just say it‘s from dryness but I have yet to find any cream or anything that makes it better. I‘m obviously not using any soaps or anything and just cotton underwear. I‘m just mentioning because maybe anyone has had this and found out they had this or that issue in ttc and it was related.

So to wrap this up. I‘m thinking I should push for lap and maybe also a biopsy of the endometrium to test for endometritis, killer cells, etc.
Anything else you would suggest? Or should I really just do another FET?