Obesity is a known risk factor for ovulation problems, but it also contributes to infertility in women who ovulate normally, new research shows.
Women in the study who were severely obese were 43% less likely to achieve pregnancy than normal-weight women or women who were considered overweight but not obese during the yearlong study.
The study is among the first to examine the relationship between body weight and infertility in women who ovulate, says researcher Jan Willem van der Steeg, MD, of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Center.
"We found that obesity is an additional risk factor for infertility in women who have regular [menstrual] cycles," he tells WebMD. "This is important given the increase in obesity worldwide."
Obesity and Infertility
Van der Steeg and colleagues followed 3,029 couples who were having trouble conceiving on their own.
All the couples had spent a year or more trying to conceive, and none had obvious reasons for fertility problems -- the women were ovulating and had at least one functioning fallopian tube, and the men had normal semen analyses.
The couples were followed until pregnancy was achieved or until they started fertility treatments. In addition to a fertility history, the women's weight, height, and smoking status were measured at study entry.
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