Monash University researchers have identified the barriers faced by people experiencing infertility to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and have suggested practical solutions to enhance skills and boost confidence to improve overall health.
They found that people with infertility identified a lack of knowledge and opportunity around the following, which held them back from maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise:
- evidence-based diet and exercise strategies
- support and resources to strengthen self-management skills
- the mental health burden of living with infertility.
A healthy lifestyle is recommended in multiple clinical infertility guidelines and this is the first review to highlight the unique challenges faced by people with infertility. It will be used to develop lifestyle interventions to improve health outcomes.
Published in Human Reproduction Update, the systematic review evaluated the perspectives of over 4,300 health care professionals and people with infertility.
Infertility, defined as the inability to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse, affects up to 186 million individuals globally.
Joint senior author, Associate Professor Lisa Moran, Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Head of the Healthy Lifestyle Research Program at the Monash Center for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), said that the impact of undergoing fertility treatments could exacerbate the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This meant equipping people with skills to feel empowered was critical.
