ePillz.com - Obesity and Infertility Walk Together

Obesity and Infertility Walk Together

August 31, 2006 - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences –

Obese men or those, whose body mass index is above 25, are in greater risk to become infertile, say the researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is one of the National Health Institutes.

Being overweight and obese is a serious risk factor to develop other serious diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, heart and vascular problems. Though scientists are quite sure about the existence of connection between obesity and infertility in women, there was no sufficient scientific research on the influence of excessive body weight on men's fertility till now.

To fill this gap, a group of scientists headed by Markku Sallmen studied couples, participating in the Agricultural Health Study, a large survey that began in 1993 with the aim to find out factors that influence the health of people, living in agricultural regions.

Infertility means inability to conceive a child within one year of unprotected sexual life. This medical term refers to both men and women. Since the major goal of the said research was to discover the connection between overweight and infertility, scientists divided all the participants into fertile and infertile and studied the data on people’s body mass indexes.

Body mass index (BMI) is a specially designed measure, which defines whether a person is underweight, overweight or in his normal weight condition. In fact, it is a number, which is calculated from one's weight and height. BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered to define normal body weight. Index showing 25-29.9 means overweight and the obesity is diagnosed when one's body mass index exceeds 30.

After careful examination of the data, received from the survey, scientists drew a conclusion that men with the increased body mass index are in greater risk to become infertile in comparison to those with normal body weight. Taking into account all the factors that may also affect fertility (such as age, smoking, alcohol intake etc.), scientists say that a 20-pound increase in men’s weight alone may increase the chances of infertility by about 10 percents.

It is interesting to note that scientists also found out that the risk of infertility due to obesity is the same for different age groups of men. Thus, younger people with the excessive body weight are at the same risk to develop infertility as those, who are older.

However, the researchers admit that the additional investigation of the issue is required, since this was the first survey, aimed specifically at the possible correlation between BMI of men and their infertility.

In the meantime, according to the fact sheet from the 10th International Congress on Obesity, which takes place in Australia these days, obesity is a problem for as many as 315 million people worldwide, so the health concerns, referred to this condition, has already exceeded the limits of separate communities or countries and has become an issue of global importance.

Nick

External resources
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/infertility2.htm
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/126/116546.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=51042
http://www.ico2006.com/
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3977