TITLE:
Obesity: Impact and Outcome on Infertility—A Literature Review
AUTHORS:
Samar Zia
KEYWORDS:
Obesity, Infertility, Sub-Fertility, BMI, Lifestyle Interventions
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
21,
2023
ABSTRACT: Background: The health risks of obesity are a forever growing
concern for societies worldwide. With the advent of Assisted reproductive technology
more couples can achieve fertility which includes overweight and obese men and
women. The review intends to explore the impact of overweight and obesity on
human reproductive potential and explores ways of optimising outcome and
minimising risk through development of sound recommendations. Aim: To
determine the impact of obesity on infertility in men and women and
recommendations to optimise reproductive outcome. Method: Relevant
published reviews on the subject were searched on the PubMed, Google scholar,
Medline, and Cochrane library within the past 10 years, from 2011 to 2021. Results: Thirty-six articles
met the criteria. Twenty-six of these were qualitative studies and ten were
quantitative. The main themes were increasing prevalence and burden of disease,
impact on male and female obesity and assisted reproductive outcomes. Conclusion: Overall, it is evident that overweight and obesity negatively effects
reproductive health of both men and women. It has numerous sequalae in men and
women of reproductive age group with lasting impact on following progeny. These
risks are minimised both in short and long term by weight loss strategies and
there is need for more literature on the subject.