(PhysOrg.com) — A University of Adelaide study has recommended that infertile couples seek advice about their lifestyle before embarking on IVF treatment or other assisted reproductive technology.
Gillian Homan, a fertility nurse specialist and researcher from the University’s Robinson Institute, says that while most people link obesity, smoking, drugs and stress to infertility problems, many infertile couples fail to look at their own lifestyle as a possible obstacle to conceiving.
Ms Homan says couples experiencing infertility should understand the role their own lifestyle can play in helping them to achieve their goal of a healthy baby. These factors should be addressed in collaboration with the latest ART techniques.
The reproductive health researcher surveyed 20 new patients from Adelaide fertility clinic Repromed to gauge their perception of how lifestyle affects fertility.
While the evidence of the impact of weight on fertility is very strong, only half of the overweight women in this study considered their own weight to be a risk factor for infertility.
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Tags : infertility, obesity
London, July 1: A new study has suggested that minor weight loss in obese women could boost their chances of getting pregnant.
Professor Bill Ledger, from the University of Sheffield, and colleagues said conducted a three-month study of 40 obese women who were not ovulating.
Many of them suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
The group’s average age was 29 and their body mass index (BMI) was around 40. Health service guidelines do not recommend IVF treatment for women with a BMI of above 30.
The women were given weight loss drugs to help them lose 5 percent of their body weight over a three-month period.
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Tags : infertility, obesity
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Obese women have alterations in the environment around the ovary before they ovulate that appear to play a role in the well-documented association between obesity and reduced fertility, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
“Characteristics of eggs are influenced by the environment in which they develop within the ovary,” lead author Dr. Rebecca Robker, from Adelaide University, Australia, said in a statement. “Our study found that obese women have abnormally high levels of fats and inflammation in the fluid surrounding their eggs, which can impact an egg’s developmental potential.”
The study included 96 women who were attending a private infertility clinic and who were divided, roughly equally, into normal weight, overweight, and obese groups using standard body mass index criteria. The fluid surrounding the ovaries - the follicular fluid — obtained during egg retrieval, was analyzed for hormones, metabolites, gene expression within certain cells.
As body mass index rose, so did follicular fluid levels of insulin, lactate, triglycerides, and C-reactive protein. Levels of sex hormone binding globulin, by contrast, decreased. Small differences in insulin-regulated genes in granulosa cells were also noted between obese and normal weight women.
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Tags : infertility, obesity
