Loosing weight before Infertility Treatment improves IVF Success rate

By Dr. Shobha Gupta  

Losing excess weight before undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment can improve pregnancy and birth outcome.   

A body mass index (BMI) of 19 to 25 is considered to be the ideal weight for conceiving. A healthy body and optimum weight during pregnancy is crucial for having a smooth pregnancy and delivering a healthy child.. According to recent study 70% of India's urban population is obese and comes under overweight category.   

Both underweight and overweight women and men suffer from a higher incidence of infertility.  Women who are obese are also at a greater risk for pregnancy complications like having a C-section, giving birth to a large baby or even developing gestational diabetes and hypertension.   

There are numerous potential complications for obese women trying to get pregnant. Some of these include:   

1.Lower response to medication used to regulate or initiate ovulation.  

2.Greater need for carefully titrated dosing of medication, especially in patients with polycystic ovaries (PCO).  

3.Greater frequency of over-response and the risk of 

over-stimulation and / or multiple pregnancies in response to medications used to induce ovulation. And if a multiple pregnancy is conceived, there are greater obstetrical complications in patients with excessive BMI than in multiple pregnancies in patients with a normal BMI.  

4. More complicated IVF cycles (besides those complications listed above) including:

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• Fewer eggs retrieved  
• Greater technical difficulty retrieving eggs with greater risk of bleeding or injury  
• Greater anesthesia risk at the egg retrieval, including maintaining adequate airway, hypertension and aspiration   
• Greater difficulty with embryo transfer in visualizing the uterus and accomplishing the embryo transfer effectively  
• Lower embryo implantation rates   
• Lower IVF success rates    

Effect of obesity on men’s fertility:   

On the other hand obesity severely affects men’s fertility.So if you’re a guy and you’re overweight and planning to have a baby in the next year or few years, you might want to act now to lose weight. The heavier the men, the higher the chances of a low sperm count, Being obese can also cause hormonal changes that reduce fertility and make men less interested in sex. Men who are very overweight are also more likely to have problems getting an erection. Together, these factors reduce the chances of men who are overweight and make them infertile.   

Effect of IVF treatment on obese couple:   

IVF or in vitreo fertilization is considered to be the hope for infertile couples. IVF is used to help women become pregnant by mixing the sperm and egg outside the body, then implanting the embryo into the woman’s uterus. But if you are overweight and infertile then IVF treatment also becomes a bit complicated for you. Research has shown that it may be more difficult for obese women to have successful in vitro fertilization — and healthy reproduction in general. This means that obese women can either attempt to lose weight, or else search for the possibility of receiving donor eggs. When it comes to IVF with donor eggs, obese women apparently have normal success rates. On the other hand weight loss improves ovulatory function as well as pregnancy outcomes.   

Overweight men and women going for IVF treatment needs more medication as compare to normal infertile couple. Overweight women requires different medication doses than normal weight women.

Related Articles: thehealthsite.com, ;  The Tribune