Obesity tied to poorer sperm quality

Studies have come to conflicting conclusions as to whether obesity impairs a man’s fertility. But several recent ones have found that obese men tend to have poorer quality sperm than leaner men do — including lower sperm counts and fewer progressively motile sperm, which refers to sperm that swim forward in a straight line rather than moving about aimlessly.

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Obese women at greater risk of repeat miscarriages

Obese women run a greater risk of repeat miscarriages and should be warned to lose weight before they try and become pregnant again, according to a new study.

Researchers at St Mary's Hospital in London found that obese women who had suffered one miscarriage had a significantly increased risk of a further miscarriage compared to those who were of a normal weight.

The 11-year study investigated the effect of body mass index (BMI) on unexplained recurrent miscarriages. The women had their BMI measured and were placed into one of four categories: underweight; normal; overweight; and obese.

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Healthy eating can help perk up fertility

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Being overweight, or obese, for example, reduces both male and female fertility. In women, it can affect ovulation.

Being underweight can also impact on fertility, particularly for women, who will not ovulate if they are severely underweight.

Smoking not only affects a person’s general and long-term health, it can also affect fertility and stress can reduce sexual desire, reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse. Severe stress may also affect female ovulation and can limit sperm production.

Nutrition – what people are eating – also has an impact on fertility. Many of us will be aware of the importance of folic acid for women trying to conceive, or that zinc is good for healthy sperm, but the role of nutrition in fertility goes beyond this.

Read more: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health-news/2009/05/25/healthy-eating-can-help-perk-up-fertility-91466-23702339/

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New Fertility Treatment -- The Pregnancy Patch

Researchers are testing a new treatment for fertility – it’s a kind of "pregnancy patch."

Video: Heard About the Pregnancy Patch?

Melissa Willmarth describes her 6-week old son Brook as her “little miracle.” She said, “It was a long journey…a few years of infertility.”

Willmarth credits her “miracle” to a team of reproductive health specialists led by Dr. Mike Thomas. He’s part of a national team conducting one of the first trials in the country on a patch to help prepare the body for pregnancy.

"It's a patch that pumps hormones into the system every few minutes, primarily for women who have low hormone function, or a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome -- which can lead to irregular cycles,” Thomas said.

The patch is being studied in healthy women between the ages of 18 and 38 who want to become pregnant. There are very few restrictions with the trial, with the exception of not being obese, or having a body-mass index of greater than 35.

Thomas's team is comparing the patch to other approved fertility treatments, which means all women who qualify to be part of the study get free fertility care.

Willmarth said, “I couldn't imagine my life without him. He's the best thing that ever happened.”

Anyone interested can call the University of Cincinnati’s Pregnancy Patch Study at (513) 584-4100.

Source: http://www.13wham.com/guides/health/story/New-Fertility-Treatment-The-Pregnancy-Patch/jUfGg_V5mUSE6q8HS-Nbbg.cspx

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Ovarian changes may link obesity and infertility

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."

Read more... http://www.vancouversun.com/Health/Ovarian+changes+link+obesity+infertility/1385905/story.html

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Obesity May Lower Pregnancy Chances

Obese women may be more likely to have fertility problems, according to new research.

Researchers from Adelaide University in Australia said that obese women have changes in their ovaries that could make it hard for eggs to become embryos.

Other work has shown that obese women take longer to get pregnant, even with regular menstrual cycles.

Source:

http://www.newsnet5.com/health/18850810/detail.html

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Teens may not know risk factors for infertility

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Canadian high school students may lack important knowledge about risk factors for infertility, survey findings suggest. For example, most students were unaware that some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility.

"About 80 percent of students said they were familiar with the term infertility," Susan Quach, of Sunnybrook and Women's College Hospital Fertility Center in Toronto, told Reuters Health. But when asked more specific infertility-related questions, fewer students answered correctly, indicating a lack of knowledge that may increase their risk of infertility later in life, Quash said.

For example, more than 94 percent of the students did not know that sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia or gonorrhea can lead to infertility, Quash and co-investigator Dr. Clifford Librach at the University of Toronto report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

The researchers asked 772 ethnically diverse high school students to complete a written questionnaire designed to determine their knowledge of and attitudes about infertility. The students were 17.5 years old, on average, and 49 percent were female.

A total of 608 students completed the questionnaire and, as noted, the vast majority did not know that chlamydia and gonorrhea can lead to infertility. About 25 percent thought fertility problems only occurred among women 40 years or older.

The researchers found that students from schools with low socioeconomic status more frequently gave incorrect answers and were significantly less aware of associations between sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.

Overall, about 73 percent of female and 67 percent of male respondents said protecting their fertility was important to them. Most also reported that their fertility was important to them. Fifty-five percent of the students said they were open to screening for sexually transmitted diseases as a means of protecting their fertility.

These findings highlight the importance of educating young people about modifiable risk factors for infertility, such as body fat, smoking, caffeine consumption, excessive exercise, drug use, and sexually transmitted infections, Quash and Librach note.

To assist the development of targeted and appropriate infertility prevention education, the investigators suggest that further infertility knowledge assessments should be conducted among students in rural or less ethnically diverse schools.

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, December 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BS58L20081229?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

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Obese men have worse sperm quality than leaner men

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obese men are more than three times as likely to have low sperm counts compared with their normal-weight peers, a study out this month in the journal Fertility and Sterility shows.

The heaviest men were also at triple the risk of having a low count of progressively motile sperm -- sperm that swim forward in a straight line, Dr. Ahmad O. Hammoud of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and colleagues found.

"There is a strong relationship between overweight and obesity and altered sperm parameters," Hammoud and his team write. Future studies should look at this relationship over time, they say, as well as how weight loss might affect sperm characteristics.

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, December 2008.

Full article: http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINTRE4BT47X20081230

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Smokers told to quit for IVF

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IVF clinics are denying treatment to smokers in the latest indication of creeping barriers to childless couples seeking help, it has emerged.

A Department of Health survey seen by Labour MP Sally Keeble last week reveals that clinics are increasingly telling mothers that they must quit cigarettes before they are considered for free treatment.

It comes amid growing concern that IVF is being restricted, with some infertile couples only receiving one cycle of treatment under the NHS, against official guidance.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has said that clinics should offer three cycles of treatment, but four years after making the recommendation, only a third of health trusts provide more than one cycle.

News that women - and on occasions their partners - have been told to quit smoking before given treatment is likely to reignite the debate over the line between advice and restrictions in the area of IVF.

In 2006 the British Fertility Society said obese women should be told to lose weight before being considered for any treatment.

And some Primary Health Trusts use narrow age restrictions when it comes to treatment, freezing more couples out of receiving free treatment.

Ms Keeble, who underwent IVF herself, said: "Smoking is not a good idea if you are trying to get pregnant. It's linked to miscarriage, and IVF is linked to miscarriage anyway. I think there's no point in putting people through expensive and traumatic treatment if they are doing something which is likely to make it unsuccessful."

She said women were on an "emotional rollercoaster" already by undergoing IVF.

"It's really important that the people doing it should give it the best possible chance of success. I think there's a whole lot of different issues about weight and people's ability to lose weight and maintain weight but, with smoking, it's such an obvious one. It's entirely in the gift of the person to stop smoking."

Source: http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVnw6zpJTqz_VxCCSNgbPuq9Os_A

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'Deny overweight women fertility treatment'

Women with a BMI over 35 should be deferred for fertility treatment until they lose weight, claims the British Fertility Society (BFS).

Women need to have a BMI below 35 to be referred for fertility treatment.

In women under 37 years with normal levels of folic-stimulating hormone, a BMI below 30 should be the aim.

A healthy weight is needed to ensure women have a good chance of success and to mimimise the risk of complications, states the BFS in its latest guideline.

GPs need to tell obese women wanting to be referred for fertility treatment that carrying excess weight reduces the likelihood of successful conception both naturally and with assistance.

Additionally, being obese increases the risk of complications in pregnancy, including miscarriage and congenital abnormalities.

The safety of fertility treatments is also compromised by obesity, which makes anaesthesia difficult and can mean the ovaries are unable to be seen on ultrasound scans.

Psychological support, dietary advice, exercise classes and even pharmacological and surgical procedures should be offered to these women.
Losing just 5-10 per cent of their body weight could restore fertility, according to the BFS.

Source: http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/PHARMACIST/767090/Deny-overweight-women-fertility-treatment/

Healthy lifestyle counters female infertility: study

Women who exercise regularly, take vitamins regularly and eat fewer saturated fats, more full-fat dairy products and less meat have fewer ovulation problems, new research finds.

Failure to ovulate regularly accounts for 18 to 30 per cent of all cases of infertility, according to the study. Infertility affects one in six couples.

The eight-year period of study, conducted by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, tracked 17,544 married women trying to become pregnant who participated in a large-scale study at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The participants were awarded a dietary score based on their diet, gleaned from questionnaires the women filled out, according to the study published in the Nov. 1 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Women were graded on whether they ate more monounsaturated fats or trans fats, vegetable protein or meat protein, high fat dairy products or low fat dairy products, and multivitamins.

Other lifestyle information was also factored in, such as regularity of exercise and Body Mass Index or BMI — a calculation based on a person's weight to height ratio.

Those women who ate the lowest fat diets with more plant than animal protein, consumed full-fat dairy products, took iron supplements and ate low-glycemic carbohydrates had the lowest risk of an ovulatory disorder.

"A combination of five or more low-risk lifestyle factors, including diet, weight control and physical activity, was associated with a 69 per cent lower risk of ovulatory disorder infertility," reads the study.

"What we found was that, as women started following more of these recommendations, their risk of infertility dropped substantially for every one of the dietary and lifestyle strategies undertaken," said Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at Harvard, in a release.

"In fact, we found a six-fold difference in ovulatory infertility risk between women following five or more low-risk dietary and lifestyle habits and those following none."

Women who had a BMI of between 25 and 29.9, meaning they were overweight, had a higher rate of infertility that those at a healthy weight, and obese women with a BMI of over 30 had more than a two-fold risk.

The scientists believe that a healthy diet as well as supplementation of vitamins regulates the body's level of micronutrients and maintains its insulin sensitivity — how well the body responds to sugars in the bloodstream.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/10/31/fertility-diet.html

Eating Trans Fats May Increase Infertility Risk

NEW YORK -- Women who want to get pregnant may want to stay away from fast food French fries not just to avoid putting on some extra pounds, a new study shows.

The more trans fats a woman eats, the more likely she is to be infertile, Dr. Jorge E. Chavarro of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues found.

Trans fats are found in fried foods, packaged snacks, commercial baked goods and other sources, and are known to increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. "Even for somebody who's not trying to get pregnant, it is a very good idea to stay away from them," Chavarro told Reuters Health.

Trans fats can interfere with the activity of a cell receptor involved in inflammation, glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, Chavarro and his team note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Drugs that activate the receptor have been shown to improve fertility in women with a condition known as polycystic ovary syndrome.

To investigate how trans fat consumption might affect fertility, the researchers analyzed data from 18,555 healthy women participating in the Nurses' Health Study. All were married and trying to get pregnant between 1991 and 1999.

For every 2 percent increase in the amount of calories a woman got from trans fats instead of carbohydrates, the researchers found, her risk of infertility increased by 73 percent. The risk rose by 79 percent for every 2 percent of energy in trans fats if they replaced omega-6 polyunsaturated fats. And for every 2 percent of calories derived from trans fats instead of monounsaturated fats, the risk of infertility more than doubled.

For a woman eating 1,800 calories a day, 2 percent of energy intake in trans fats equals 4 grams, Chavarro noted. "It's not very hard to get 4 grams of trans fatty acids every day," he said. "It's really a small amount of trans fatty acids that we observe having a significant effect on infertility."

The Food and Drug Administration now requires manufacturers to state on their label if a food contains a half gram of trans fat per serving or more, Chavarro noted, but foods with less than a half gram are allowed to claim that they have zero grams of trans fat. To cut trans fats out of the diet completely, he added, people should avoid all foods that list hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in their ingredients

Source: http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/1/18/215752.shtml?s=he

Sons of infertile moms may have poor semen quality

Monday, September 3, 2007 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health)

A new study provides more evidence that sons of women who underwent fertility treatment may be more likely to have fertility problems themselves.

Earlier this year, Danish researchers were the first to report a link between infertility treatment of mothers and poor semen quality in male offspring.

But Dr. Cecilia Host Ramlau-Hansen of Aarhus University Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark and colleagues say it's possible that maternal obesity may have been a factor in the relationship, given that heavier women are more likely to be infertile and tend to have higher estrogen levels, which could effect the development of male sex organs in the womb. Sperm-damaging pollutants are also known to collect in fatty tissue.

To investigate the role of obesity, Ramlau-Hansen and colleagues, who were not involved in the original study, analyzed data from a study of maternal smoking in pregnancy and sons' semen quality. Among the 325 men aged 18 to 21 participating in the study, 30 had mothers who reported having been "examined or treated for childlessness."

They found that the young men whose mothers had fertility problems had lower sperm counts, lower sperm concentrations, fewer normally formed sperm, and worse sperm motility. None of the differences, except for sperm concentration, were statistically significant, but this may have been due to the small size of the study.

The body mass index (BMI) of the mothers, a measurement of weight in relation to height, did not appear to play a role in the relationship between infertility and low sperm count, Ramlau-Hansen and her colleagues say.

"It is unknown whether the poor semen quality is related to infertility treatment or is caused by male or female infertility itself, for instance, through hereditary factors," they write.

"It is important," they conclude, "to get data that can address this issue, since it is plausible that some infertility treatments may impact [organ development] and function of the testis."

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, September 1, 2007.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_54308.html

A Baby at 40? (The Life Issues Institute, Inc.)

There's a lot of so-called conventional wisdom out there today that would discourage any woman over 40 from getting pregnant and having a child. Some of this centers around the fact that that couple would have a very slightly higher chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome or mongolism. Few know, however, that three-fourths of all children born with Down Syndrome are born to women who are under 35 years old. Well, let's look -- what are the odds if you are over 35?

Well, first let's take a woman who's under 35. What is the chance of her having a normal child without Down's? Well, it's 999 times out of 1,000. Now let's take a woman who's 40 years old. What are her chances for a normal baby? 990 out of 1,000. Clearly, those odds should be very reassuring if someone's around 40 years of age and does want another child.

Let's turn the page and ask another question. What about physical complications to the woman who's pregnant after 40? Well, actually, there are very few complications if she has kept herself in good general condition. And that, of course, would be true at any age.

I recall a major clinical report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology entitled "Pregnancy After Forty Years of Age" by Dr. Spellacy and colleagues. They did a very large study... 511 pregnancies in women over age 40 out of a total of 40,000 women.


They studied them, compared the delivery outcome of the women over 40 with those who were between the ages of 20 and 30. And about the only major problem they turned up was being overweight. Those older women who were overweight had more high blood pressure, more diabetes, more placenta praevia, that is, the afterbirth coming out in front of the baby. They also had bigger babies, and, interestingly enough, more males, and, sadly, more babies born dead.

But for those women of normal weight, however, who were over 40, there was no difference in high blood pressure, no increase in large babies, no increase in fetal death rate, no more distress at delivery. Women of normal weight over 40 did have a little more diabetes and had a few more Caesarean sections. But their infant outcome was no different from that of the younger women.

So the conclusion of the study was that women who are over 40, who are of normal weight, if managed by modern obstetric standards, can expect a good pregnancy outcome and have no more fetal complications than younger women.


There was one other factor that was statistically significant - not greatly so - and that was that, if she had had many babies, was what we call a "grand multipara", then there was a very slightly increased chance of problems for both. But the bottom line was that there is very little additional risk to mother and baby for a woman pregnant over 40, outside of the major risk factor of obesity.

So if you're 40, and you want a baby, go ahead -- the odds are heavily with you, but you better watch your weight.

[07/18/96]

Source: http://www.lifeissues.org/radio/r1996/lr1314.html

Obese Couples Risk Lower Fertility

Study Shows Weight of Both Partners May Affect Conception
By Salynn Boyles

March 7, 2007 -- A couple trying to conceive may face an extra challenge when both the man and the woman are overweight or obese, new research suggests.

Compared with normal-weight couples, obese couples participating in a Danish study were almost three times as likely to take more than a year to achieve a pregnancy.

Previous studies have shown that weight can affect fertility in women, but the Danish study is the first to examine the impact of overweight or obesity in couples.

The findings strongly suggest, but do not prove, a causal association between excess weight in both partners and decreased fertility, researcher Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen tells WebMD.

“Because of the study design we cannot say for a fact that it is extra body fat that makes people less fertile, but it certainly appears that this is the case,” she says. “If a couple is overweight and wants to have a child it may be beneficial for both partners to attempt weight loss.”

Weight Loss Reduced Time to Conception

The researchers analyzed data from 47,835 couples who participated in a nationwide study of pregnancy outcomes in Denmark. Women in the study completed four interviews over a period of two years, giving information for both themselves and their partners on weight, height, previous pregnancies, smoking, and socioeconomic status.

The findings are published in the March issue of the journal Human Reproduction.

A total of 8.2% of the women, 6.8% of the men, and 1.4% of the couples in the study were obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. BMI looks at weight in relation to height and is used as an indicator of body fat.

As measured by BMI, a 5-foot-2-inch person who weighs 165 pounds or more is considered obese, as is a 6-foot-tall person who weighs 220 or more.

Just over half of the men and two-thirds of the women in the study were normal weight.

Ramlau-Hansen and colleagues from Denmark’s University of Aarhus evaluated the time it took the couples to become pregnant. Sub-fertility was defined as failure to conceive for at least a year after initiating unprotected sex with the goal of conceiving.

Obese women had a 78% greater risk of being sub-fertile than normal-weight women, and obese men had a 49% increased risk for sub-fertility than normal-weight men.

The risk of taking more than a year to achieve a pregnancy was 2.74 times higher when both partners were obese than for a normal-weight couple.

The researchers further examined 2,374 couples who had more than one pregnancy. When they converted the length of time that it took the women to get pregnant into days, they concluded that for overweight or obese women, every 2.2 pounds of weight loss reduced the time to conception by an average of 5.5 days.

Heavier Men Have Less Sex

The suggestion that weight loss seems to improve fertility for both women and, to a lesser extent, men has important potential public health implications, says epidemiologist Donna Baird, PhD, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

Baird co-authored a 2006 NIEHS study that linked obesity to infertility in men. The researchers concluded that a 3-unit increase in BMI increased the risk of infertility by about 10%.

At least one other study has linked obesity in men to a decline in sperm quality, but Baird says more research is needed to confirm the association between body weight and infertility in men.

She adds that the decline in fertility among overweight and obese men may have more to do with sexual function than sperm quality.

“There are a lot of gaps in what we know,” she tells WebMD. “We didn’t have data on the frequency of sexual intercourse among men, and we know that obesity can certainly impact sexual function. Low libido and erectile dysfunction, for example, are much more common in obese men.”

Source: http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/news/20070306/obese-couples-risk-lower-fertility