How Obesity Affects Your Chance Of Pregnancy? Know From Expert

Obesity And Pregnancy: Couples who are planning to conceive are advised to improve their health and achieve a certain standard of fitness for a healthy pregnancy. From quitting smoking, drinking to eating a balanced diet the whole lifestyle of a person needs to change before they conceive. Doctors often advise the couples who are planning to conceive to attain healthy weight, especially if either mother or father are obese Dr. Meenakshi Ahuja Senior Director Obstetrics & Gynaecology Fortis La Femme GK explains on how obesity affects your chance of pregnancy.

Obesity can have a negative impact on fertility and pregnancy outcomes in both men and women. In Women obesity can cause menstrual irregularities, chronic oligo-anovulation and infertility. It can also increase the risk of miscarriage and impair the success of assisted reproductive technologies.

Obesity can also affect the endometrium, which can lead to placental abnormalities. Once pregnancy occurs, the outcome of pregnancy is compromised in obese patients. Patients suffer with an increased rate of miscarriages, and complicated pregnancies and even stillbirth. There is increased risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes in pregnancy. This leads to risk of prematurity, growth restriction, labour complications, and even still births. There is increased risk of post delivery complications to the mother like wound infection and sepsis. If obesity is complicated with thyroid disorders, sub fertility, increased miscarriages and subnormal intelligence is seen in children. Uncontrolled diabetes at conception in obese women is associated with increased rate of birth defects

Some factors that may contribute to the link between obesity and infertility include:

Insulin excess and insulin resistance, This is a factor in PCOS, ovulation gets disturbed and hence conception becomes difficult .

Excess free fatty acids, which can damage cells and create a chronic low-grade inflammatory state.

Oxidative stress is a major factor in damaging cells and hence disturbing quality of life of the eggs as well as the uterine lining for implantation

Altered levels of adipokines, such as leptin, which can affect steroidogenesis and the developing embryo, this leads to early miscarriage even if conception does occur in the woman

Obesity can cause low testosterone levels, erectile dysfunction, and infertility. It can also impair the physical and molecular structure of sperm, and decrease sperm quality in Men.

This can lead to sperm quality as well as quantity causing sub fertility, miscarriages and abnormalities in the fetus. Lifestyle interventions, such as weight loss, physical activity and dietary changes, can improve fertility. Decrease in BMI will lead to correction of metabolic disturbances and improve quality of egg and sperm and give better fertility rates and improved pregnancy outcome.

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