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Obesity in couples may decrease fertility rates
Couples with overweight and obesity had reduced fertility rates compared with couples with normal weight, suggesting the importance of body composition when couples are attempting pregnancy, study data show.
“A lot of studies on fertility and body composition have focused on the female partner, but our findings underscore the importance of including both partners,” Rajeshwari Sundaram, PhD, a senior investigator in the division of intramural population health research at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a press release. “Our results also indicate that fertility specialists may want to consider couples’ body compositions when counseling patients.”
Sundaram and colleagues evaluated data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) study on 501 couples attempting pregnancy from 2005 to 2009. Participants were followed daily for a up to a year of trying to conceive or until a human chorionic gonadotropin test indicated pregnancy had occurred. Researchers sought to determine the effect of the couples’ weight status on fecundity.
Overall, 27% of women and 41% of men had BMI of at least 30 kg/m2 (class I obesity or higher).
Fecundity was reduced by 36% in couples in which the woman had a waist circumference of at least 88.6 cm compared with couples in which women had a waist circumference of less than 80 cm.
In couples in which the woman had overweight/obese class I and the man had normal BMI, fecundability was reduced by 54% (adjusted fecundability OR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.23-0.95); the chance of fecundability was also reduced when both had BMI in the obese class II range (adjusted fecundability OR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.21-1).
Fecundability was reduced by 23% to 36% in couples in which the woman’s waist circumference was greater than 88.6 cm compared with those in which women had a smaller waist circumference (< 80 cm) regardless of the men’s waist circumference. In couples in which the man had a larger waist circumference (94 cm to 101.6 cm) and the woman had a smaller waist-to-height ratio, a significant reduction in fecundability (50%) was found compared with couples with smaller waist circumferences (adjusted fecundability OR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.27-0.94).
“For those trying to achieve pregnancy, maintaining a healthy weight reduces the risk for such conditions as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer,” Sundaram told Endocrine Today. “Previous studies have reported similar findings in couples undergoing infertility treatment. Ours is the first we’re aware of to find reduced fertility in obese couples not being treated for infertility. Also, many studies have focused largely on the female. Our results underscore the importance of including both partners when assessing couple fecundity.” – by Amber Cox
For more information:
Rajeshwari Sundaram, PhD, can be reached at sundaramr2@mail.nih.gov.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.