Physical Activity and Fertility Care Study (PACE)

Randomized control trial to determine if performing the US Health and Human Services recommended amount of weekly physical activity during ovarian stimulation will differentially affect mental health or clinical outcomes of individuals who are usually active, insufficiently active, or inactive in their everyday lives. The goal overall is to assess for safety and value of physical activity during fertility treatment.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Infertility, Female
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Insufficient physical activity; Behavioral: Sufficient physical activity

Detailed Description

Consenting participants will be separated into groups based on current average level of physical activity: Active women (complete >75 minutes of vigorous exercise or >150 minutes of moderate exercise per week) and Insufficiently active women (<75 minutes of vigorous exercise or <150 minutes of moderate exercise per week).

Between time of study enrollment and first ultrasound at start of ovarian stimulation cycle, the participants will be sent a link to questionnaires to assess general mental health parameters and physical fitness. They will be asked to complete the questionnaire prior to first ultrasound visit. At time of first ultrasound, participants who have completed the pre-stimulation survey will be randomized into one of two arms depending on their group: the active group will be randomized to (A) maintenance or (B) decreased activity arm, and the insufficiently active group will be randomized to (C) increased or (D) maintenance activity arm.

Also at first ultrasound, participants will be given a wearable heart rate monitor in order to track heart rate during the time from ovarian stimulation to first pregnancy test in order to monitor compliance to randomized activity level of each participant. The data from the monitors will be collected through a central university provided, password protected laptop utilizing an app platform. Furthermore, all participants will be asked to complete a daily mood, stress, discomfort questionnaire throughout stimulation. Participants will be expected to continue recommended physical activity level and questionnaires until day of egg retrieval. Wearable monitors will continue to be worn until time of first pregnancy test. Within the two weeks after completion of egg retrieval, participants will be sent a follow-up questionnaire to assess overall treatment stress and satisfaction with ovarian stimulation cycle. Those who completed in vitro fertilization and fresh embryo transfer will be sent a second follow-up questionnaire about 1-2 weeks after pregnancy test.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 215
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • San Francisco, California, United States, 94158
      • UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 43 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• First ovarian stimulation cycle for egg freezing or for in vitro fertilization
• English speaking/reading
• Patient at the Center for Reproductive Health, University of California San Francisco

Exclusion Criteria:

• Serious health conditions that limit amount of physical activity
• BMI>40

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Usually Active- Decrease; Participants who usually meet or exceed recommended levels of physical activity who will be asked to minimize activity during stimulation.	Behavioral: Insufficient physical activity; Physical activity less than the recommended levels by the US Health and Human Services Department: 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity or 150 minutes a week of moderate activity.
Experimental: Usually Active- Maintenance; Participants who usually meet or exceed recommended levels of physical activity who will be asked to maintain usual level of activity during stimulation.	Behavioral: Sufficient physical activity; Physical activity at the recommended levels by the US Health and Human Services Department: 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity or 150 minutes a week of moderate activity.
Experimental: Usually Insufficiently Inactive- Increase; Participants who are usually inactive who will be asked to try to increase activity to the recommended level during stimulation.	Behavioral: Sufficient physical activity; Physical activity at the recommended levels by the US Health and Human Services Department: 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity or 150 minutes a week of moderate activity.
Active Comparator: Usually Insufficiently Inactive- Maintenance; Participants who are usually inactive who will be asked to maintain inactivity during stimulation.	Behavioral: Insufficient physical activity; Physical activity less than the recommended levels by the US Health and Human Services Department: 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity or 150 minutes a week of moderate activity.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Stress During Treatment based on daily end of day stress item	As validated in prior studies (Schliep et al. 2015) examining stress and infertility, we will ask participants, "how did your stress levels today compare to your usual level of stress?" Participants will respond on a 3-point scale with the following options: 1 (not stressful), 2 (a little stressful), 3 (very stressful). We plan to compare average daily stress as well as stress trend over the 14-days of stimulation.	14 days
Anxiety/Depression During Treatment based on Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Short Form (PROMIS-SF) Depression 4a and Anxiety 4a	Measured with daily PROMIS-SF Depression 4a and Anxiety 4a questions for the approximately two weeks of ovarian stimulation. The PROMIS-SF Anxiety 4a item bank assesses self-reported fear, anxious misery, hyperarousal, and arousal-related somatic symptoms (e.g., dizziness). The PROMIS-SF Depression 4a item bank assesses self-reported negative mood (e.g., sadness), views of self (e.g., worthlessness), social cognition (e.g., loneliness), and decreased positive affect and engagement. Items are all answered on a 5-point scale from 1=Never to 5=Always. Scores can range from 0 meaning no anxiety/depression to 40 meaning high anxiety/depression.	14 days
Change in Stress during treatment based upon Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)-14	Change in mean PSS-14 score from pre-treatment to post-treatment. PSS-14 includes 14 items, 7 negatively states items and 7 positively stated items. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale (0 = Never, 1 = Almost Never, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Fairly Often, 4 = Very Often). The positively stated items re reverse coded, so all items are summed to create a total score. Scores can range from 0 meaning no stress to 56 meaning severely stressed.	4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of mature oocytes retrieved	Number of mature oocytes collected during oocyte retrieval after ovarian stimulation	4 weeks
Fertilization Rate	Number of fertilized oocytes out of the total number that were mature	4 weeks
Blastulation Rate	Number of blastocysts that developed out of the total number of day three embryo	4 weeks
Clinical Pregnancy Rate	Number of ultrasound confirmed intrauterine pregnancies out of the total ovarian stimulation cycles for in vitro fertilization	6 weeks
Cancellation Rate	The number of ovarian stimulation cycles that were cancelled out of all the ovarian stimulation cycles started	2 weeks
Ovarian Torsion	Number of ovarian torsion cases that occurred out of the total ovarian stimulation cycles	6 weeks
Live Birth Rate	Number of Live Birth out of the total ovarian stimulation cycles for in vitro fertilization	10 months
Treatment continuation rate	Number of women who continue treatment after first cycle if not pregnant after the first cycle	4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, San Francisco
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Heather Huddleston, MD, University of California, San Francisco

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 26, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 27, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): June 28, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): December 27, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 20, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physical Activity; Exercise; In Vitro Fertilization; Ovarian Stimulation
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Female Urogenital Diseases; Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications; Urogenital Diseases; Genital Diseases; Genital Diseases, Female; Infertility; Infertility, Female
• Other Study ID Numbers: 19-28431

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No