Carrying excess weight could make life even harder for women who are trying to conceive via IVF.
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage but its effect on assisted reproduction wasn鈥檛 known. To investigate, at Guy鈥檚 and St Thomas鈥� Hospital in London, and colleagues followed 413 women who鈥檇 had IVF between 2006 and 2010.
The group noted the women鈥檚 BMI before treatment 鈥� a figure between 25 and 29.9 is classed as overweight, while over 30 is obese. Around 44 per cent of women who were obese had a miscarriage compared with 19 per cent of those at a healthy weight. Around 33 per cent of women who were overweight but not obese miscarried.
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Being overweight can alter hormone levels that affect the egg and its environment, El-Toukhy says.
The UK鈥檚 National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence says that women with a BMI over 30 who opt for IVF of potential difficulties. But El-Toukhy says, 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 stop at 30, we should aim for a BMI as close as possible to the healthy range.鈥�
鈥淚t confirms what we thought we knew,鈥� says Stuart Lavery, a gynaecologist at the Imperial College NHS Trust in London. 鈥淣ow there鈥檚 really good justification to employ weight loss programmes as part of fertility management.鈥�
, a fertility specialist at the University of Sheffield agrees: 鈥淭he effect of obesity on the outcome of assisted conception has been unclear. This is an excellent study which clearly demonstrates that obesity is an important factor in the miscarriage risk after IVF. It highlights the need for women, and I would argue couples, to try and achieve a healthy weight prior to IVF.鈥�
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