Megan Roup on the Value of Movement During Pregnancy

Fertility is the most-requested topic—behind food—that Katie Lee Biegel fields on social media. Since sharing her fertility journey with the public in 2019, Biegal has created a connection with countless women navigating similar stories. Biegel is a big advocate for movement during pregnancy, partnering with your doctor during your fertility journey, and embracing your unique path to motherhood.

While most know Biegel through her professional accomplishments—bestselling author, founder of Kind of Wild Wines, co-host of Food Network’s The Kitchen, and host of the All on the Table podcast—her vulnerability about fertility has resonated deeply with women. By sharing her journey, Biegel has given the world a behind-the-scenes look into her experience, offering both solace and solidarity to others facing their own challenges. 

“Everybody has their own experience; this is just mine,” Biegel says. “Since I first shared, so many of you have included me in your personal experiences, which I feel so honored to be included in. I’ve felt your pain and your joy.”

On a recent episode of All on the Table, Biegel sits down with fitness trainer Megan Roup, creator of the online fitness studio The Sculpt Society, to talk about her company’s new fertility program and the importance of movement during pregnancy. Check out the latest episode of All on the Table to hear their conversation.

The Ups and Downs of Fertility 

In 2013, with no romantic prospects on the horizon, a friend encouraged Biegel to freeze her eggs at the age of 32. After one cycle of IVF, Biegel remembers feeling sad and defeated: “I disliked the way I felt; I was sad that I wasn’t just getting pregnant with a partner and that I was needing to freeze my eggs.”

She only got five eggs from that first round. Fast forward to 2018, Biegel married her now husband. She was sure she’d get pregnant on her honeymoon, but months went by without a positive pregnancy result. “Sex was not fun during that time because I put a lot of pressure on our relationship.”

Soon after, Biegel’s OBGYN found that she had large uterine polyps. She had to have surgery, and she started IVF after healing. She retrieved eight eggs from that round but zero embryos: “It’s really a numbers game. That is the mind f*** of this whole process. You get so wound up in these numbers. That first round crushed me. I thought I was one and done. I’m a very goal-oriented person. I fix things. I thought I found a solution and I hadn’t.”

Biegel and her husband went back and did round two and got one embryo. She got pregnant, but it was a chemical pregnancy (which means she had an early miscarriage before there is a heartbeat).

Finally, they decided to try her frozen eggs. Still that did not work. After the fourth retrieval from her frozen eggs, finally, Biegel got pregnant. “At my six month ultrasound, there was one strong heartbeat. I’ve never heard a better sound in my life.”

Megan Roup’s Fertility Program

Biegel has known celebrity trainer and The Sculpt Society founder, Megan Roup, for years. Roup recently started a fertility program at her fitness studio to provide support and community for women during this special (and sometimes challenging) time.  

Biegel says that the program encourages movement during pregnancy. “When I was going through my fertility process, I loved exercise. But I didn’t know what I could or could not do. So I did not do anything, which made me feel worse,” she adds.

In addition to supporting physical wellbeing, movement is essential to mental health. Roup explains that movement is critical during the fertility and pregnancy process when it is stressful. Of course, there are restrictions during different stages of the fertility journey, but there are still ways to incorporate movement.

To start the fertility program, Roup connected with a fertility expert, Dr. Lucky, and an MD psychiatrist in maternal mental health. Together, they developed a program that supports women in movement during every stage of the fertility process. The program breaks content down into different sections: pregnancy loss, IVF, freezing eggs, and trying to conceive. In each section, the program offers details of what a woman is physically allowed to do. The program also offers videos, discussions, tips for mental health, and the shared stories of women who have gone through it.

“Oftentimes, we don’t realize how many women are going through this. It’s such a stressful and emotional time. When I’ve looked out how I can serve women, it became very clear to me that this was an area where women were not getting support,” Roup explains.

The program also prioritizes mental health. “How can we have open and honest conversations so that women feel less alone in the process?”

Advice for Women in Their Pregnancy Journeys

For women beginning this journey, Biegels advises finding a doctor you trust. “Have one captain of the ship, not a bunch of voices talking to you. The doctor has to be your North Star. Also, try not to be so hard on yourself also.”

To anyone who tells women to relax and that if they did not stress, they’d get pregnant, Biegel strongly disagrees: “Guess what? Women get pregnant in times of war and famine. It’s not your fault. It’s not because you’re stressed out about getting pregnant.”

Lastly, women should remember that there are many paths to motherhood. “Whether it’s IVF, donor eggs, donor sperm, adoption—there are a lot of different options. What’s meant to be for you, you will find. It just takes one.”