Sydney, July 07: Many people link obesity, smoking, drugs and stress with infertility problems, but lifestyles could also come in the way of conception for many couples.
A University of Adelaide study has advised infertile couples to seek advice about their lifestyle before embarking on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment or other assisted reproductive technologies.
Gillian Homan, fertility nurse specialist from the university’s Robinson Institute, says couples experiencing infertility should understand the role their own lifestyles can play in helping them to achieve their goal of a healthy baby.
The reproductive health researcher surveyed 20 new patients from the Adelaide fertility clinic Repromed to gauge their perception of how lifestyle affects fertility.
While the evidence of the impact of weight on fertility is very strong, only half the overweight women in the study considered their own weight to be a risk factor for infertility.
“Both obesity and low body weight can cause hormone imbalances and affect ovulation,”Homan says. “The time it takes to become pregnant is markedly increased if both partners are obese and the chance of delivering a healthy baby is also less.”
Homan says overweight women are also at risk of pregnancy complications such as
miscarriage, gestational diabetes, and increased blood pressure.
The other major finding to come out of the study reveals that many women trying to conceive are not following the current recommended guidelines for folic acid supplements, said a release from the university.
“A daily supplement of folic acid pre-conceptually and in the first three months of pregnancy has been shown to decrease the risk of neural tube defects by up to 70%. Many women around the world are unaware of this fact,” Homan says.
These findings were published in the Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing this month.
–IANS