Obesity and male infertility

Abstract

Overweight and obese men have a 50 % higher rate of subfertility when compared to normal-weight men. This effect persists even when confounding factors such as diseases, age, smoking, alcohol use, and obese female partner have been controlled. Obesity is strongly linked to reduced spermatogenesis, poor quality of sperm, and a reduced percentage of normal sperm morphology. A lasting weight loss allows significant improvements of all the metabolic syndrome parameters, and in particular the reduction of visceral fat is associated with an improvement of the male reproductive function. Dietary antioxidants may be beneficial in reducing sperm DNA damage, in infertile obese men. In obese male, with a reduced fertility and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, it is possible to evaluate a treatment with antiestrogens or aromatase inhibitors. The pharmacological effect on spermatogenesis should be manifested through an increased concentration of FSH, LH, and testosterone.