\u201cCycling isn\u2019t big on the radar of fertility doctors,\u201d says Prof Colin Duncan, a fertility expert at the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
For women, he says, the only time cycling is likely to affect fertility is when it\u2019s done at extreme levels, such as the kind of training undertaken by elite athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing huge amounts of physical activity can lower body fat, and that\u00a0can switch off the ovaries,\u201d he\u00a0says. \u201cElite athletes may stop having their periods and reduce their\u00a0fertility.\u201d<\/p>\n
For men, things are a little different. Sitting on a bicycle saddle for prolonged periods can increase the temperature around the testicles, \u201calmost incubating them\u201d. This can affect sperm production, because sperm develop best at a cooler temperature \u2013 one reason the testicles are located outside the body.<\/p>\n
double quotation markIf you\u2019re doing extreme cycling, it will change your sperm count a little<\/p>\n
But for most men, Duncan says, this isn\u2019t something to worry about. \u201cThe testicles produce way more sperm than is actually required for fertility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf\u00a0you cycle a normal amount, it\u2019s\u00a0still going to make absolutely no difference at all. But if you\u2019re doing extreme cycling, it will change your sperm count a little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even then, he says, the impact is more likely to matter for men whose sperm count is already borderline. \u201cIf\u00a0you\u2019ve got a really good sperm count, it probably doesn\u2019t make an\u00a0awful lot of difference. You\u2019ve still\u00a0got a lot of sperm there that are\u00a0swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fertility clinics, Duncan says he\u2019ll\u00a0consider lifestyle factors when assessing a patient\u2019s sperm sample. \u201cIf\u00a0there are abnormalities I\u2019ll get a\u00a0sense of what their lifestyle is like and\u00a0talk about changes,\u201d he says. \u201cIf\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0doing certain things to\u00a0excess \u2013 smoking, drinking, saunas\u00a0\u2013\u00a0it\u2019s probably worthwhile moderating\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCycling isn\u2019t big on the radar of fertility doctors,\u201d says Prof Colin Duncan, a fertility expert at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-900565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}