IVF recommendations

Did you guys see this study?

I am one of those women.  I drink coffee once a day, IVF or not.  I gave it up for the first seven transfers or so, then decided I had enough and started drinking it again, and guess what, I had Emma.   And I drank coffee up to my delivery day.  I also exercise within reason with all of my IVF cycles, but avoid running during the stim cycles.  For this cycle I ran up to the day before embryo transfer, when I did an 8 km run, the longest of the week.  I was told not to swim for two weeks, but the truth is I believe in my heart of hearts that this is bogus and that I should be allowed to swim already, I mean it's not like I get a vagina full of water every time I get into the pool.  The doctor said to me she also thought it was overkill, and we both agreed that 2 days is likely enough, but as she told me, in IVF, the tradition is to ask patients to abstain from swimming and baths for two weeks, so there we go.

I never did any bed rest with the transfers, although I did take it easy on those days.  I don't believe in bed rest. 

It seems harmless enough to ask women to refrain from x, y and z during IVF cycles, thinking that it cannot harm and it might help, but without research to back it up, or even without sound scientific thinking behind these requirements, I get a bit skeptical.  I mean, did they research this swimming topic?  Why don't we tell women no baths for two weeks after insertion of an IUD, a much more invasive procedure than an embryo transfer?  None of my friends who had IUDs inserted were given any kind of restrictions for more than two days after the procedure.

And no, it is not just-for-one-month-so-suck-it-up kind of thing either.  For me, who has had nine transfers so far, we are talking about nine months, i.e. almost one year, of limitations.  Plus the months of IUI related madness (12 of those), in which no running was allowed either.  That is almost two years of my life in which I was to behave as an old lady with a broken hip.

There was one study about exercise in the five years prior to IVF leading to decreased success, but how exactly does that translate into decreased success if I exercise the days before a FET cycle?  A blanket statement such as "take it easy, just to be sure" is a bit irritating.  Why not state the facts, which include the "we have no idea" element?