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Can exercising a lot (or too vigorously) impair your fertility?

Vigorous exercise will not impair your fertility at all if it's part of a healthy lifestyle. It won't affect your progesterone level or make it harder for embryos to implant, and it won't cause your periods to stop.

Some female athletes are extraordinarily thin, however, which can cause a condition that prevents the hypothalamus from properly releasing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRH). In turn, this can prevent her from producing estrogen and ovulating.  

So an extremely underweight woman may have plenty of healthy eggs in her body. But she may be unable to release her eggs through ovulation because she's stopped producing certain hormones. However, as long as you continue to have your period (a sign that you're ovulating), your fertility should not be impaired.

Vigorous exercise is also fine for men, as long as they don't try to enhance their performance with anabolic steroids, some of which are legally and readily available in health food stores in the form of androstenedione.

Androstenedione is a "natural" anabolic steroid, but that doesn't make it any less potent. Like any other anabolic steroid, it can increase muscle mass dramatically, but it can also shrink the testicles, lower the sperm count, and cause liver disease and early heart attacks.

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