Can having a laptop on my belly impact fertility? I work from home and sometimes lie on the couch with my laptop on my stomach. I am about to start my first round of IVF, and I’m scared that the heat would hurt my chances of getting pregnant. Should I stop doing this?
—Hot Lap
How heat affects fertility is becoming more and more of a concern with rising global temperatures as the result of climate change. You asked about a laptop on your belly (which I also sometimes do), but similar things would be said about heat packs or anything else that warms up and can be placed on your belly.
First, we know that excess heat is generally not good for fertility and pregnancy outcomes. We don’t have a clinical trial that I can point you to, but there is pretty good data both from animal studies (interestingly, most animal studies on this topic are related to the reproduction of cows, which goes to show just how important they are to our economy) and from many observational studies. They all show that excess heat lowers the chances of pregnancy and increases the risks of birth defects and other adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm labor.
But the key here is that excess heat means heat that raises your core body temperature. A laptop (or a heat pack) is really unlikely to do that. That’s good news because heat packs are often recommended to help with the pain and swelling that can result from the injections during IVF.
What does cause your core body temperature to rise are things like the daily temperature outside (and whether or not you have access to cooling like air conditioning), saunas, and hot tubs, which is why the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends avoiding those last two during early pregnancy. Most of the studies looking at this show that raising the core body temperature by as little as 1° to 2°C can have these adverse impacts, so keep that in mind.
In short: I wouldn’t worry about working with a laptop on your stomach.
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