Women who are obese and struggling to get pregnant are often advised to lose weight, but new studies show that there is no benefit to childbirth from losing weight.
In a randomized study of 379 women with obesity and unexplained infertility, intensive lifestyle changes that reduce weight rather than simply gaining physical activity without losing weight lead to pregnancy and healthy childbirth. It turns out that it does not increase the possibility of.
“We’ve known for decades that obese women often have difficulty getting pregnant,” said Dr. Daniel J. Heisenreder, a researcher at the University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Center for Reproductive Research. “For this reason, many doctors recommend weight loss before pregnancy, but few studies have addressed a healthy lifestyle, the problem of comparing exercise to exercise and weight loss.”
Obesity and pregnancy
In the FIT-PLESE study conducted at nine academic medical centers nationwide, participants were divided into two groups. The other half simply gained physical activity without trying to lose weight. After completing the program, both groups received three rounds of standard fertility treatment.
Women in weight loss programs lost an average of 7% of their weight, but participants in the exercise-only group usually maintained their weight. But in the end, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the frequency of healthy births. In total, 23 of the 188 women who completed the 16-week intensive weight loss program gave birth. Of the 191 people who completed the exercise-only program, 29 gave birth.
However, an intensive diet program has brought health benefits to women who have completed it. In addition to dropping the pound, they saw a significant reduction in metabolic syndrome, a series of conditions that increased the risk of serious health problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.
Based on their findings, Haisenleder and his collaborators conclude that the weight loss program did not make women more fertile or improve the outcome of childbirth compared to simply exercising. increase. They state that the health benefits of weight loss may not translate into better odds of pregnancy.
“Weight loss improved the metabolic health of these subjects. Unfortunately, the changes seen did not improve childbirth,” Heizen Leder said. “Infertility within this population remains an important health problem and will require further research to address this problem in the future.”
Funding for the study was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Schreiber National Institute of Pediatric Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, with grants U10 HD38992, U10 HD077680, U10 HD39005, U10 HD077844, U10HD055925, U10 HD27049, U54-HD29834 and R24. -HD102061. This project was also supported by NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and funded UL1TR002014 and UL1TR001863. Nutrisystem offered discount coupons, and Fitbit offered discount Fitbit for activity monitoring.
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