The effect of obesity on human reproductive health and foetal life
Open accessAbstract
Obesity in both women and men is regarded as one of the many factors that may contribute to impaired reproductive health. Obesity can be accompanied by several neuroendocrine and ovarian dysfunctions, including chronic oligo/anovulation, menstrual irregularities, subfertility, and the increased risk of pregnancy in women. Insulin resistance, elevated triglyceride and fatty acid levels, and the secretion of adipocytokines caused by the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue associated with obesity adversely affect reproductive functions. Alterations in sperm quality and motility and hormone levels related to a rise in body mass index (BMI) may predispose men to infertility. The mechanisms of action of obesity on male infertility include endocrinopathy, erectile dysfunction, epididymitis, increased leptin and adipocytes, increased aromatase, inflammatory cytokines secreted by fat tissue, and sperm DNA fragmentation. This study reports that an increased BMI may lead to low semen quality, poor sperm motility, and reduced fertilization rates in men as well as anovulation, pregnancy loss, diminished pregnancy, and low live birth rates in women. Having optimal weight with balanced nutrition enables one to maintain a continuity of reproductive health throughout the entire life cycle, which is extremely important in terms of having a healthy embryo, including pre-foetal life, in the continuity of pregnancy and having a live birth.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Excess fat, particularly in the abdominal region, can elevate estrogen levels in obese women, disrupting hormonal balance and causing irregularities in ovulation and menstrual cycles.
“Excess fat, particularly in the abdominal region, can elevate estrogen levels in obese women, disrupting hormonal balance and causing irregularities in ovulation and menstrual cycles35,36.”
From The nonlinear association between body roundness index and infertility in married women (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
Cites
Zhao, J., Zhang, Q., Wang, Y., & Li, Y. (2014) · Fertility and Sterility · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.06.033 · Cited by 361 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…sperm can cause serious consequences, such as a low fertilisation/implantation rate, the alteration of embryo/blastocyst development, higher spontaneous abortion, and reduced live birth rates following assisted reproduction treatment (Anifandis et al., 2012; Colaci et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2014).”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The nonlinear association between body roundness index and infertility in married women
Fang, Y., Ren, D., Pan, J., & Xu, Q. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-86948-2 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Incedal Irgat, S., & Bakirhan, H.
- Affiliations
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Karaman, Turkey
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Venue
- Human Fertility
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-05-21
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 860-871
- ISSN
- 1464-7273 (ISSN-L)
- 1742-8149
- OpenAlex
- W3159999462
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Human Fertility (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eArşiv - KMÜ (Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Ovarian function and disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Reproductive Health and Technologies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Sperm and Testicular Function
- Keywords
- obesity, reproductive health, male infertility, female infertility, anovulation, insulin resistance, adipokines, semen quality, sperm motility, body mass index, miscarriage, live birth rate, adipose tissue, aromatase, sperm DNA fragmentation, erectile dysfunction, epididymitis, leptin
- MeSH terms
- Anovulation, Female, Humans, Infertility, Male, Male, Obesity, Pregnancy, Semen, Sperm Motility, Semen Analysis, Reproductive Health
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
