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How do I know if running is affecting my fertility?
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You all know your own body and if you are worried speak to your GP or practice nurse, that's what they are there for and what we pay out taxes for, so use them ladies.
I personally think the 12 month rule depends on your age and general health etc. We also put too much pressure on ourselves after years of preventing pregnancy to automatically assume we should get pregnant straight away. Allow your body time to adjust to the decision physically and emotionally and let nature take care of itself.
Jx
You don't get much chace to indulge in the practice once you have been successful, and I'm sure that you will be.
There's a lot that is not fully understood about the causes of stress, but the effects do seem to include apparent infertility.
Some colleagues of ours tried and tried and tried, then decided to go for IVF, having twins as a result. Within a couple of months of the birth she was pregnant again, but this time naturally. They hadn't thought that contraception was necessary given their earlier difficulties.
And I completely empathise with the thought of having to cut back when you've worked so hard to get to the level you're now at.
Obviously if I become pregnant then I accept that I will likely need/want to cut back. My plan then is (if I am able) to run for fitness and enjoyment as opposed to 'training'. It will be strange, but I guess looking at the bigger picture, what's nine months out of a lifetime?
By the way, just for the record - I'm NOT stressed in any way about this. I was just mildly concerned that I'd have to cut back on the running in order to be able to conceive. Hipps, I hear what you're saying re. going to the GP, and what others have said about just going for a chat and to make them aware that we are 'trying'. I will probably go in the New Year but in the meantime I am ticking all the right boxes - I don't smoke (never have done), drink very little, eat healthily, exercise and take my folic acid. Mr. Minks ticks most of the right boxes - at the moment we're not going down the 'cutting out all alcohol' route so he does have the odd beer/glass of wine during the week as well as at the weekend, but he's no binge drinker. He should probably start doing some exercise (although he isn't remotely overweight) and he's started wearing boxer shorts instead of underpants.
My cycle is slightly irregular (and long) so although for the past couple of months we've tried to work around likely ovulation time, I think the 'once every 2-3 days' tactic might be a better option.
At the end of the day, 2/3 months is not long to have been trying and I'm certainly not going to get concerned just yet. I'll pop along and have a chat to my GP at some point but I know that they probably won't contemplate tests until we've been trying for a year. However, given that I'm 36 there may be some leverage on this.
Watch this space ...!
We were trying to concieve for 2 years, but I wasn't really mentally ready. In my mind I was happy doing what I wanted to and had doubts that I wanted to be a parent. Surprise surprise we didn't concieve. Then late last year I decided that I was really ready. I was prepared to put my career and running/tris on hold for a bit. I concieved that month. We did nothing different. Strangly we visted the docs and had the tests early that month too. As others have said they do the easy tests first, a blood test for you and a sperm sample for hubby.
I think you're doing the right thing, go to the docs and get the tests done only when you feel ready.
I wonder sometimes if I'm really ready mentally, but unfortunately my biological clock isn't going to wait for my mind to catch up.
Interesting that from your experience, your mind almost acts like a contraceptive unless you really are ready and really want to become pregnant.
I think the only real way of telling if you are ovulating is by charting temperatures or peeing on a stick. Temp charting isn't that difficult but it did get me very stressed out. Also you have to sleep well for it to be accurate and as I don't there wasn't much point me carrying on.
The US runnersworld forums have a daily TTC thread. It's a bit quiet at the moment, but I got loads of really good information just reading it. Also it is nice to read about other people in similar situations.
Good luck!
(oops, sorry, didn't put about me. I'm on my first cycle after coming off the pill and trying seriously. Day 65, so who knows what is going on with my body!)
I'm not going to go down the road of charting temperature or peeing on a stick just yet - I think it just makes you feel stressed which is a big antidote to conception. As I said before, I'm not desperate to conceive - will be happy if it happens but not devastated if it doesn't. Will have a look at the US site though - thanks for the tip!
Good luck to you too - it can take a while for your cycle to sort itself out post-Pill so don't worry if it's a bit haywire for a while. I had one period (very light, hardly anything there) about 2 weeks after stopping the Pill then nothing for another 5 weeks, and now my cycle is anywhere between 33 and 40 days, so even if I did have sticks to pee on I wouldn't know when!!
The US thread is in the womens forum and usually starts around 2-3pm our time.