In today’s society, people live a wealthy and hectic lifestyle, which makes them overlook the importance of regular exercise. It becomes one of the causes leading to obesity or overweight. The population of obese and overweight people continues to grow recently.

Obesity not only increases the risk of many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea syndrome and stroke, but also increases the risk of several types of cancer, such as rectal cancer, cervical cancer and so on. In addition, obesity also affects the fertility function of men and women.

Concerning the female fertility, obesity affects female hormone regulation thus hinders ovulation. Some women may have the experience: they originally enjoy regular monthly cycle, but the cycle become irregular and prolonged once they have gained their body weight by more than 10 pounds. The phenomenon is even more prominent for ladies who have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

While for male fertility, obesity also affects male hormone regulation, increasing the occurrence of sexual problems and erectile dysfunction. The process of sperm production may also be affected by obesity. Low in sperm count and sperm motility will reduce the chance of pregnancy.

If a couple plan to get pregnant, they should maintain a standard body weight, i.e. Body Mass Index between 18 and 22, which helps increase pregnancy rate, reduce spontaneous abortion rate and pregnancy complications.

Remarks: Calculating Body Mass Index (BMI): weight (kg) / body height (m) ²

The content in this article is for reference only, it does not provide any professional diagnosis or treatment advice.

Health Information