Triple careers of athletes: exploring the challenges of planning a pregnancy among female elite athletes using semi-structured interviews.

Background: The challenging factors that elite athletes perceive for combining their sportive career with planning a pregnancy and motherhood need to be identified in order to develop supportive measures. Therefore, this phenomenological qualitative study aimed to explore challenges associated with planning a pregnancy among female, non-pregnant elite athletes.

Methods: Semi-structured skype-interviews were performed among female elite athletes (athletes competing on national or international level) aged 28 years or older.