Subfecundity in Overweight and Obese Couples
Background: Recent studies indicate that not only women's but also men's obesity has adverse effects on fecundity and since fecundity is a couple concept, we examined fecundity in relation to overweight and obesity of the couple. We also examined the association between weight changes and fecundity over time.
Methods: Between 1996 and 2002, 64 167 pregnant women enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort were interviewed during and 18 months after pregnancy. Information on body mass index (BMI) and waiting time to pregnancy (TTP) was available for 47 835 couples.
Results: Among men and women with a BMI of 18.5 kg/m or more, we found a dose-response relationship between increasing BMI group and subfecundity (a TTP of more than 12 months): Odds ratio (OR) = 1.32 (95% CI: 1.26-1.37) for women and OR = 1.19 (95% CI: 1.14-1.24) for men. Among 2374 women with an initial BMI of 18.5 kg/m or more, who participated more than once in the Danish National Birth Cohort, each kilogram increment in weight between the two pregnancies was associated with a 2.84 (95% CI: 1.33-4.35) days longer TTP.
Conclusions: Couples have a high risk of being subfecund if they are both obese.
The 'obesity epidemic' seen in many countries is a serious threat to public health and a reduced capacity to reproduce is a potential but less well-known health hazard related to obesity.
Women's overweight is a risk factor for reduced fecundity (Bolumar et al., 2000; Diamanti-Kandarakis and Bergiele, 2001), and recently men's obesity has also been linked with subfecundity (Sallmen et al., 2006), as well as reduced semen quality (Jensen et al., 2004). Since overweight and obesity tend to cluster in couples, it is important to have risk estimates for couples rather than individuals. We examined the association between different combinations of men's and women's body mass index (BMI) on fecundity in couples enrolled in the large Danish National Birth Cohort. For women having more than one birth, we also studied whether a change in weight between the two births correlated with a change in waiting time to pregnancy (TTP).
Background: Recent studies indicate that not only women's but also men's obesity has adverse effects on fecundity and since fecundity is a couple concept, we examined fecundity in relation to overweight and obesity of the couple. We also examined the association between weight changes and fecundity over time.
Methods: Between 1996 and 2002, 64 167 pregnant women enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort were interviewed during and 18 months after pregnancy. Information on body mass index (BMI) and waiting time to pregnancy (TTP) was available for 47 835 couples.
Results: Among men and women with a BMI of 18.5 kg/m or more, we found a dose-response relationship between increasing BMI group and subfecundity (a TTP of more than 12 months): Odds ratio (OR) = 1.32 (95% CI: 1.26-1.37) for women and OR = 1.19 (95% CI: 1.14-1.24) for men. Among 2374 women with an initial BMI of 18.5 kg/m or more, who participated more than once in the Danish National Birth Cohort, each kilogram increment in weight between the two pregnancies was associated with a 2.84 (95% CI: 1.33-4.35) days longer TTP.
Conclusions: Couples have a high risk of being subfecund if they are both obese.
The 'obesity epidemic' seen in many countries is a serious threat to public health and a reduced capacity to reproduce is a potential but less well-known health hazard related to obesity.
Women's overweight is a risk factor for reduced fecundity (Bolumar et al., 2000; Diamanti-Kandarakis and Bergiele, 2001), and recently men's obesity has also been linked with subfecundity (Sallmen et al., 2006), as well as reduced semen quality (Jensen et al., 2004). Since overweight and obesity tend to cluster in couples, it is important to have risk estimates for couples rather than individuals. We examined the association between different combinations of men's and women's body mass index (BMI) on fecundity in couples enrolled in the large Danish National Birth Cohort. For women having more than one birth, we also studied whether a change in weight between the two births correlated with a change in waiting time to pregnancy (TTP).
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