Contents:
- Medical Video: Can being obese affect a woman's ability to get pregnant?
- Difficulty getting pregnant when overweight
- Increase the chance of pregnancy when overweight
Medical Video: Can being obese affect a woman's ability to get pregnant?
Problems with overweight or obesity, defined by a body mass index (BMI) above 30, are more common. Many pregnant women fall into this category. BMI, which is obtained from the calculation of body weight and height, shows how much you weigh.
Before becoming pregnant, you might use a BMI scale to find out if you are overweight or not. But throughout pregnancy, this scale can be inaccurate.
Difficulty getting pregnant when overweight
Most women who are overweight can get pregnant without difficulty. But if your BMI score is 30 or more, you might experience fertility problems. It will be more difficult for you to get pregnant with a BMI score above 30 when compared to your BMI score in the ideal range, which is 18.5 - 25.
Being overweight can cause hormonal imbalances in the body. This can result in difficulty ovulating so the pregnancy will be more difficult to occur.
Along with efforts to increase fertility, it would be nice if you lose weight before becoming pregnant. If you are still overweight while pregnant, the risk of developing gestational diabetes will increase.
Being overweight can sometimes be a symptom of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) along with other symptoms such as:
- irregular menstrual cycles or not even menses at all
- unnatural hair growth
- pimples
PCOS is not always characterized by the symptoms above; but if you think you might have PCOS, consult your doctor.
If you suffer from PCOS and obesity at the same time, weight loss can help you get a pregnancy and reduce symptoms of PCOS by stabilizing hormones and blood sugar levels.
Taking steps to improve your health condition can allow for a greater chance of pregnancy if you also choose the method of help to get pregnant. Being overweight can reduce the effectiveness of IVF (in vitro fertilization). One study concluded that being overweight could reduce the chances of IVF success by half, compared to other women who had the ideal body weight.
Increase the chance of pregnancy when overweight
To increase the likelihood of becoming pregnant for obese people, pay attention to the following:
- Lower your weight first - even with just a little weight loss, 5-10 lbs (about 2 - 4 kg), can increase the chances of pregnancy. But a strict diet is not the best way because it can cause other physical problems.
- Pay attention to your menstrual cycle. If you are under 30 years of age with regular menstrual cycles, try to get pregnant on your own (without prior medical help) within a period of 6 months, according to the American Pregnancy Association. Keep an eye on your menstrual cycle with the LH hormone checker, pay attention to temperature changes, and mucus tests can help determine your fertility time. Also pay attention to the time for sexual intercourse a few days before ovulation and when ovulation itself. This will be easier if you are able to determine when you are ovulating. If your mens cycle is irregular, never wait to consult a specialist.
- Visit a fertility specialist after a six-month trial at home. A blood test and a doctor's diagnosis will prove a problem that needs to be addressed so that the possibility of pregnancy is greater.
- Take a health test to find out if you have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Women who are overweight and have difficulty achieving pregnancy may be affected by PCOS, characterized by high levels of male hormones in the body and abnormal insulin responses. Women who suffer from PCOS have thick hair but look unnatural, are overweight, and cannot ovulate themselves (without medical help). PCOS sufferers can be helped with drugs that can stabilize the insulin response in the body.
- Take medication from your doctor regularly. First of all the doctor will prescribe to deal with irregular menstrual cycles; usually doctors give Clomid. Clomid is a drug "anti-estrogen" that is taken to fight the effects of the hormone estrogen in the body. This is related to fertility because essentially more fat in the body means more estrogen production. That might sound like good news - but it's not. When your body considers estrogen levels to be high, the body does not ripen the ovarian follicles that contain eggs anymore. The ovary will begin to ripen the follicles in response to low estrogen levels in the body.
