What You Need to Know About Yoga for Fertility

Meditation, visualization, and yoga are just a few examples of mind-body practices. As the term mind-body suggests, these practices can support not just your mental state but also your physical body. So much so, that in a study conducted by fertility psychology pioneer, Alice Domar, women undergoing IVF who participated in a ten-week mind-body for fertility program had higher success rates than women who didn’t participate in the program.

There’s no denying it, having a hard time getting pregnant can be emotionally trying. In fact, people experiencing infertility have rates of depression and anxiety similar to those of people facing cancer or other chronic diseases. But there’s hope.

Yoga is one tried and true way to build resilience and dampen the mental and emotional effects of difficulty conceiving. We even have research that shows practicing yoga can greatly mitigate the depression and anxiety that so often accompany infertility.

As the most common endocrine disorder of women of reproductive age, PCOS is one of the leading causes of ovulatory infertility. Fortunately, yoga has been shown to help relieve many of the symptoms of PCOS and promote improved hormone balance.

In 2012, researchers compared the effects of yoga and conventional exercise on insulin levels, menstrual regularity, androgen levels and a whole host of other PCOS related labs and symptoms. They found the young women who participated in the yoga program, had a greater improvement in labs and symptoms than those who completed a conventional exercise program.

While yoga, in general, can be incredibly beneficial for overall and reproductive health, not all types of yoga are ideal when you’re trying to conceive. If you’re actively TTC, stick to more gentle and restorative types of yoga.

Opt for slow-flow, gentle, restorative, yin, or fertility yoga classes. And limit or completely steer clear of hot yoga, power, and other more strenuous forms of yoga.

Want to start incorporating yoga into your fertility self-care plan? You can get started right at home with a few simple poses.

Take a seat close to a wall. With the soles of your feet flat on the floor, knees bent and pointing up towards the sky, turn sideways so you’re perpendicular to the wall.

Place your right hip against the wall. Lie back with your knees still bent.

Swivel your upper body so your head is pointing away from the wall and your bottom is pressed against the wall. Extend your legs up the wall. Breathe deeply and slowly. Stay in this position for 5 minutes or longer if time permits.

To come out of this pose, re-bend your legs and rotate to lie on your side. Slowly press yourself up to sitting.

Take a seat on your mat and place the soles of your feet together in front of you.

Allow your knees to fall away from one another, thighs moving towards the ground. Breathe deeply. Stay in the pose for one to five minutes.

Extend your legs in front of you and gently shake them out.

Lie on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet flat on the floor.

Raise your hips towards the sky and place pillows, blocks, a bolster, or folded blankets right above your tailbone. Breathe slowly and deeply. Stay in this pose one to five minutes.

To come out of this pose, raise your hips and remove the prop from underneath you.

Whether you decide to take a yoga class in a studio or practice at home, you’ll be doing a truly wonderful thing to nurture your mental, physical, and reproductive health while you nourish your mind, body, and soul.

Domar, A. D., Rooney, K. L., Wiegand, B., Orav, E. J., Alper, M. M., Berger, B. M., &Nikolovski, J. (2011). Impact of a group mind/body intervention on pregnancy rates in IVF patients. Fertility and Sterility,95(7), 2269-2273. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2011.03.046

Jasani, S., & Heller, B. (2016). Impact of a Structured Yoga Program on Anxiety in Infertility Patients: A Feasibility Study. Journal of Fertilization: In Vitro – IVF-Worldwide, Reproductive Medicine, Genetics & Stem Cell Biology,04(02). doi:10.4172/2375-4508.1000183

Nidhi, R., Padmalatha, V., Nagarathna, R., &Amritanshu, R. (2013). Effects of a Holistic Yoga Program on Endocrine Parameters in Adolescents with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine,19(2), 153-160. doi:10.1089/acm.2011.0868

Kendra Tolbert MS, RDN, RYT is a women’s health registered dietitian, yoga teacher, and aromatherapist. She helps women and couples balance their hormones and optimize their chances of conceiving with simple self-care practices. Learn more at Live Fertile.