Fertility Considerations For Athletes | Nikki Butterfield

Healing Grumpy Athletes

Nikki's story may feel familiar to many people, and we were cognisant that it can be a sensitive topic. The purpose of todays conversation was to kick start the dialogue amongst athletes, practitioners, doctors and coaches in regards to athletic longevity, and in particular fertility considerations for athletes. Nikki Butterfield has a long and impressive athletic history. Starting Triathlons back in 1997 under the guidance of Jackie Fairwhether. She was in good company, training with the likes of Annabelle Luxford, Miranda Carfrae and Emma Snowsill. During her athletic career she described it as "flogging herself day in day out." During that time female Triathlete's were dominating the sport and Nikki found her strength in cycling, switching over to the bike as a professional in 2005. After being on the Aus team and missing Olympic selection, she was disheartened and devastated. Her husband Tyler Butterfield had always wanted to kids so Nikki shifted her focus from being an athlete to being a Mum, but her journey wasn't a smooth one, and that's the story you're going to hear today. Nikki will share what she discovered lead to her difficulty in maintaining a pregnancy. (Note, we did leave off the 3rd reason and I have expanded on this as an additional audio at the end of the podcast) Both Nikki & I felt that this topic was very important to raise awareness of fertility and the menstrual cycle in athletes, especially in the formative years. So if this podcast simply starts the conversation, for athletes of all ages, we have done our job for today.We discuss: Nikki's Professional Career highlights What her professional career training load looked like Her 3 children, from 10 pregnancies The medical maze she entered to get answers The relationship between being an athlete & fertility considerations Menstrual cycle irregularities Ovarian reserve Advise for future mothers and athletes Show note links: Nikki's Instagram for Triathlon: https://www.instagram.com/butterfieldracing/ @butterfieldracing Nikki's Instagram for the family & farm: https://www.instagram.com/thebutterfieldfamilyfarm/ @thebutterfieldfamilyfarm