Obesity: Impact and Outcome on Infertility—A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: The health risks of obesity are a forever growing concern for societies worldwide. With the advent of Assisted reproductive technology more couples can achieve fertility which includes overweight and obese men and women. The review intends to explore the impact of overweight and obesity on human reproductive potential and explores ways of optimising outcome and minimising risk through development of sound recommendations. Aim: To determine the impact of obesity on infertility in men and women and recommendations to optimise reproductive outcome. Method: Relevant published reviews on the subject were searched on the PubMed, Google scholar, Medline, and Cochrane library within the past 10 years, from 2011 to 2021. Results: Thirty-six articles met the criteria. Twenty-six of these were qualitative studies and ten were quantitative. The main themes were increasing prevalence and burden of disease, impact on male and female obesity and assisted reproductive outcomes. Conclusion: Overall, it is evident that overweight and obesity negatively effects reproductive health of both men and women. It has numerous sequalae in men and women of reproductive age group with lasting impact on following progeny. These risks are minimised both in short and long term by weight loss strategies and there is need for more literature on the subject.