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Does Weight Affect Fertility?
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Do You Know Weight Can Affect Your Fertility?
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, BUT the quality of the eggs is not fixed. The environment you
create for your developing eggs is crucial when it comes to making sure that they are genetically as healthy as they can be.
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What about my weight?
Something as simple as weight can affect your chances of conceiving! Being overweight or underweight can affect fertility. But that's not the only reason for getting to a healthy weight before you begin trying for a baby.
Being underweight (BMI<20)
during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of premature birth or having a baby with a low birth weight. Sadly, it can also increase the risk of miscarriage. So, if you are underweight, gaining a few pounds before you conceive is a great way to give your baby a better start in life.
Being Overweight
can make it hard for you to get pregnant as being overweight leads to higher levels of the hormone called leptin which can disrupt the hormone balance leading to reduced fertility. You may have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or PCOS, this is one of the most common reasons for infertility in women and can also cause weight problems. Try to get as close as possible to a healthy weight for your height before trying for a baby. Ideally, your body mass index (BMI) should be between 20 and 25.
Being Overweight can affect fertility by:
• Irregular Menstrual Cycles. Extra weight, particularly excess fat around the stomach, is linked to insulin resistance (when the body has to produce more insulin to keep blood sugar levels normal) and decreased levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), a protein that is involved in the regulation of the sex hormones androgen and oestrogen. This increases risk of irregular menstrual cycles, which in turn reduces fertility.
• Preventing ovulation. Your ovaries make the female hormone oestrogen. Fat cells also make oestrogen. As you gain weight, your fat cells grow and release more oestrogen. Too much natural oestrogen can cause your body to react as if you are taking hormonal birth control with oestrogen (like the pill) or are already pregnant. This can prevent you from ovulating and having a monthly period.
• Quality of the Eggs: Many Women who carry excess weight still ovulate, but it appears the quality of their eggs they produce is reduced. This means it will take longer for you conceive compared to someone in the healthy weight range.
• Preventing fertility treatments from working. Obesity may lower your chances of getting pregnant with certain fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Health risks for the mother being overweight during pregnancy?
Being overweight or having a BMI>30 during pregnancy raises your risk for problems during pregnancy. Also gaining more weight than recommended can cause these problems too, these include:
• Gestational hypertension
(high blood pressure during pregnancy). If not controlled during pregnancy, gestational hypertension may lead to a more serious condition called preeclampsia.
• Gestational diabetes
(diabetes that starts during pregnancy). Being overweight raises the risk for gestational diabetes. Women who have had gestational diabetes also have a higher lifetime risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Gestational diabetes can cause low blood sugar in the infant. Unborn babies may also be larger, which could injure the baby or the mother during birth.
• Increased risk for C-Section.
Not only does your weight affect fertility so can your diet! Optimum fertility calls for a holistic approach to nutrition and health. You have to visualise your body as a whole, all systems (diet, exercise, sleep and reduced stress levels) working together to create balance. Your nutrition needs to optimise your reproductive system including the health of your eggs but also your digestive and immune system. Good sleep and reduced stress can affect your weight, health and fertility.
Alternative therapies
such as acupuncture
have
helped many women successfully conceive alongside improving their diet and IVF fertility treatment.
Start making small changes 6 months in advance to prepare your body. Don't forget, it takes two to make a baby and it's not only the women that need to make changes to their diet and health, men do too!
If you need support with diet and fertility, why don't you book in for a discovery call? Don't forget to get the hubby's diet checked out too!
