Review of studies · Exercise · 20 Oct 2026
Across 13 reviews and more than 32,000 people, exercise lined up with better fertility measures in women and in men
Source: Journal of Global Health
What the research found
Study (umbrella review of meta-analyses). Lai Kwan Lam, Bekalu Kassie Alemu, Margie H. Davenport, and colleagues report in the Journal of Global Health (2026; 16:04282; DOI 10.7189/jogh-16-04282), published 28 Aug 2026. They included 13 meta-analyses of randomized trials, covering 24,470 females and 8,068 males. In females, exercise lined up with favorable shifts in sex hormone-binding globulin and anti-Müllerian hormone, and with higher ovulation, pregnancy, and clinical pregnancy rates. In males, exercise lined up with better sperm concentration, morphology, count, and semen volume, and with a higher pregnancy rate in female partners. The public abstract does not give the age range or the size of each effect. This is not a fertility plan. Not medical advice.
Evidence level: Review of studies. This is among the stronger kinds of evidence, but one study rarely settles a question.
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