The majority of people are aware that obesity leads to diabetes, heart disease and sometimes an early death, but few consider the implications on reproductive health.
Being overweight can kill your sex drive, stop your periods and ovulation and cause complications such as hypertension if you do manage to get pregnant.
It isn't just overweight women who should worry, either. Men are equally affected by obesity and it can cause erectile dysfunction, stopping them from even having sex, never mind becoming a father.
Erectile Dysfunction
A study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that obesity was significantly associated with erectile dysfunction. 2,435 men were included who had visited a clinic for treatment for sexual dysfunction between 2001-2007. Of these men, 41.5% were normal weight and 48% were overweight with 4.0% being in a very morbidly obese cateogory. It was found that the heavier a man was, the less testosterone he produced and the lack of this essential male hormone in turn caused erectile dysfunction.
As many as two in three men in the morbidly obese cateogory suffered with low levels of testosterone and there was also a greater number of obese men who had abnormalities in blood flow to the penis. (The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 5 Issue 10, Pages 2454 - 2463).
A Word of Warning to Women
If you are heavily overweight, you are more than 40% less likely to get pregnant than a woman of normal weight, particularly if you have a body mass index of 30 or more and you can still suffer from obesity related infertility even if you ovulate and have periods.
Impact of Obesity on IVF Treatment
In addition to reducing your natural fertility, obesity can lower your chances of being successful at your IVF treatment and if you do get pregnant, you have a greater risk of miscarriage and other pregnancy complications. For this reason, some fertility clinics refuse to treat patients who are obese.
The journal Human Reproduction said, "Obesity is associated with anovulation, and minimal weight loss alone is an effective therapy for induction of ovulation in both obese women and obese PCOS women. Consequently, lifestyle programmes encouraging weight loss should be considered an ovulation induction therapy and consideration for a potential pregnancy in an obese woman given."
So if you are obese and planning on trying to lose weight, think of the fact that it could improve your sex life and even restore your fertility, as the perfect motivation for a healthier lifestyle!
