Women's training

Does exercise actually help or hinder your chances of falling pregnant? Here, Lauren takes over these pages to share her own very personal fertility journey in an effort to shed some much-needed light on this little-discussed subject...

- By Lauren Drinkwater

For anyone reading this who is struggling to fall pregnant, please know that you're not alone and that talking to others and hearing their F stories will help, I promise. It's my hope that sharing my own fertility story will offer some comfort, too.

And for anyone else, if you're training for triathlon falling pregnant might actually be the last thing on your mind and you might be reading this out of a sense of vague intrigue. It might be that you're training for something in order to get fitter before falling pregnant. Or it might be that you're a seasoned athlete who just happens to want a baby but doesn't want to give up competing. Whether or not you relate to my story, sharing it with you might just help to raise awareness of the condition I suffered from.

MARATHON TRAINING

Back in 2009 I decided to run the London Marathon. After several 10ks and half marathons in my mid to late 20s, it was the ultimate goal for me. By the time of the marathon I was 29 and at the top of my running game, so being part of the day along with achieving my time of 3:46hrs were among the proudest moments of my life.

There was no question that the training was grueling and looking back it did take over my life. However, the outcome I didn't quite consider was the toll it took on my body. I was underweight, weighing somewhere between 45-47kg at 5ft3in. At the time I didn't worry about it, and when my family and friends made comments I just brushed them aside. I was on the pill so my periods, to all extents and purposes, were regular and normal. I felt absolutely fine and was the fittest I'd ever been.