Importance of Physical Activity and Improving Metabolic Health in the Preconception Period

Time: 1530 - 1555 | Venue: TBC, Academia (SGH Campus)

Track: Session 3 - Maternal and Women's Health

Speaker:

Overview:

The preconception period offers a critical window to improve parental health before pregnancy and influence fertility, pregnancy outcomes, and the lifelong health of the next generation. Physical inactivity, excess adiposity, insulin resistance, dysglycaemia, and poor cardiovascular fitness are common among reproductive-aged adults and may reduce fertility while increasing the risks of gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders, and adverse offspring metabolic health.

This presentation examines why physical activity should be embedded within routine preconception care for women and men. We will discuss the importance of improving metabolic health, glucose control, mental wellbeing, sleep, and reproductive function, and considers practical approaches for people who are not yet actively planning pregnancy.

A life-course strategy should combine early risk identification, personalised activity goals, reduced sedentary time, and readiness for change. Digital tools and brief clinician consultations can support tracking, feedback, motivation, and timely referral, but programmes must also address time constraints, competing commitments, physical limitations, and unequal access to supportive environments.

Integrating physical activity with nutrition, sleep, mental health, supplementation, and management of medical conditions can strengthen metabolic resilience before conception. Upstream, couple-centred care offers an opportunity to improve health across generations.