Obesity – How it affects your Fertility

1. Obesity – How it affects your Fertility Post settlement in their professional and personal life, every couple fancies creating a family and bear children. This motivates them to try to increase their chances of fertility. However, given today’s lifestyle and professional priorities, a multitude of factors need to be considered when talking of fertility. Your lifestyle, diet, alcohol or caffeine consumption, exercise regimen and other day to day activities are few of the key factors that may influence a couple’s fertility success rates. Most people don’t realize that a healthy weight is the key to a healthy pregnancy. Being overweight or obese can impact your fertility. Obesity is a rising epidemic affecting millions worldwide and it can significantly affect a woman's capacity to get pregnant and carry on a pregnancy to term. Today around 1 in 4 women are overweight as per surveys and studies and these rates are higher in women experiencing problems in conceiving. How Obesity Affects Fertility Statistics prove that obese women are three times more likely to suffer infertility than women with normal BMI. Obesity also makes them prone to an increased risk of early and recurrent miscarriage. Here we have tried to sum up the detrimental effects of obesity on the fertility of men and women. 1.Impact on hormones A higher body mass index (BMI of 30 and above), is the primary cause of hormonal changes in the female body. A deviation in the natural levels of hormones decreases the chances of conception.

2. 2.Insulin resistance Obesity induced hormonal imbalance can lead to insulin resistance. That is a major risk factor towards diabetes and also affects fertility by creating abnormal menstrual cycles. Insulin resistance causes anovulation, in which the body does not produce eggs properly. 3.Affects natural and assisted pregnancies Obesity poses a challenge to pregnancy, whether acquired through natural means or reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The best IVF specialist in East Delhi told us that greater a woman's body-mass index (BMI) is, the less likely she is to have a successful IVF experience. Obesity also heightens the risk of miscarriage due to hormonal changes or poor quality eggs. 4.Impact on Men's fertility Contrary to common belief, obesity and infertility don’t affect only women, it affects men, too. It results in a drop in testosterone, which is a leading cause of infertility in men. Additionally, erectile dysfunction is also quite common among obese men. How losing weight can help you With an increasing focus on the connection between lifestyle, weight, nutrition and fertility, a multidisciplinary approach to weight management is emerging as a successful treatment option. Doctors are emphasizing on a lifestyle change, proper and healthy diet, exercise, and behaviour modification. The best maternity hospitals in Delhi advice their patients to acquire a more holistic approach to obesity and reproductive health as it can help increase the chances of conception in obese women. In doing so, it would also have a positive impact on general health.