Obesity may cause Infertility in Women
Recent studies shows that obesity contributes to infertility in women who ovulate normally. According to a yearlong study, 43% of obese women who tried to get pregnant were not successful.
Van der Steeg and his staff followed 3,029 couples who were having problems conceiving on their own.
All the couples have been trying to have a baby for a year or more and the women were ovulating and had at least one functioning fallopian tube, and the men had normal semen analyses.
At the beginning of the research, the women's weight, height, and smoking status were measured. Based on their (BMI) body mass index, the women were classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese.
A woman with a BMI of 35 was found to be 26% less likely to achieve a spontaneous pregnancy than women who were normal weight or overweight but not obese.
A woman with a BMI of 40 or more was 43% less likely to get pregnant.
It is still not clear how obesity relates to fertility in women who ovulate normally. Van der Steeg suggests that disruptions in the hormone leptin, which regulates appetite and energy expenditure, may prevent successful fertilization.
Another research at the Penn State Hershey College of Medicine confirmed that obese women that were doing infertility treatments needed higher doses of infertility drugs than normal-weight women.
The issue of fertility and obesity is very complex and we are only beginning to discover it.
See also: Female Fertility Treatments
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