Can obesity affect your ability to have children?

We all know that being overweight impacts your health. But did you know it might also make it harder to have children? 

Let's explore the impact obesity can have on fertility.

How obesity affects women

Obesity can affect a woman's reproductive health in many ways. One major issue is how it disrupts hormones, the body's chemical messengers. Abnormal hormone levels can lead to problems like irregular periods and difficulties with ovulation (the release of an egg), sometimes making it harder to get pregnant. Being overweight also increases the chances of miscarriage and having complications while pregnant.¹ 

How obesity affects men

When we talk about obesity and fertility, we often focus on women, but men are affected too. For men, obesity can cause hormonal issues that lower testosterone.² Obesity can also harm sperm health, making them less mobile and more prone to damage.³ 

Conditions like diabetes and sleep apnea, more common in those who are obese, can also affect fertility.³ 

What to do if your weight is affecting your fertility

Making lifestyle changes is crucial for managing obesity and trying to boost fertility. Research shows that overweight women struggling with infertility can significantly enhance their fertility by losing weight. 

In fact, the study suggests that weight loss should be the first option for women who are infertile and overweight.⁴ For those who struggle with losing weight through lifestyle changes alone, medication or surgical procedures have been shown to help.⁵

Working with a team of healthcare experts, like dietitians, mental health experts, and fertility specialists, can give the support needed for those dealing with obesity and infertility.

The numan take

Obesity can make it harder to have children by disrupting hormones and affecting both physical and mental health. By taking a multi-faceted approach to health, we can greatly improve the outcomes for those dealing with weight-related fertility issues.

References

1. Zheng, L., Yang, L., Guo, Z., Yao, N., Zhang, S., & Pu, P. (2024). Obesity and its impact on female reproductive health: unraveling the connections. Frontiers in endocrinology, 14, 1326546. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2023.1326546 

2. Dandona, P., & Dhindsa, S. (2011). Update: Hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in type 2 diabetes and obesity. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 96(9), 2643–2651. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2010-2724 

3. Craig, J. R., Jenkins, T. G., Carrell, D. T., & Hotaling, J. M. (2017). Obesity, male infertility, and the sperm epigenome. Fertility and Sterility, 107(4), 848-859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2017.02.115

4. Clark, A. M., Thornley, B., Tomlinson, L., Galletley, C., & Norman, R. J. (1998). Weight loss in obese infertile women results in improvement in reproductive outcome for all forms of fertility treatment. Human Reproduction, 13(6), 1502–1505. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/13.6.1502

Gautam, D., Purandare, N., Maxwell, C. V., Rosser, M. L., O’Brien, P., Mocanu, E., ... & McAuliffe, F. M. (2023). The challenges of obesity for fertility: A FIGO literature review. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 160(S1), 50-55. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijgo.14538