Garden Acupuncture Explains How Obesity Decreases IVF Success

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Learn about how obesity can decrease your success during IVF program.

A new study coming out of Massachusetts fertility center has found that overweight women are less likely to conceive using IVF. In the study, the birth rate for overweight/obese women was 23% compared to 42% among the lower end of normal-weight range. Of the 477 women who were moderately obese 22% had a baby, compared to 30% of the healthy weight group. The study also showed that the more obese the female the higher the increase of misconception. Among the highest in obesity, referenced as 100 pounds overweight, only 15% of the women were able to conceive.

The lead researcher on the study said there are still questions about the role of a woman's weight in IVF success.  In some past studies, researchers have found that normal-weight and obese women have similar chances of having a baby, but most of those studies were much smaller than this, said Dr. Vasiliki A. Moragianni, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston.  Moragianni's team had data on 4,600 women who underwent a first-time round of IVF or IVF plus intracytoplasmic sperm injection -- a technique used when there are problems with the sperm.

Overall, obese and overweight women were less likely to have a baby so then the researchers looked at whether short-term weight loss made a difference.  There were 45 women who had managed to shed some pounds before starting their first treatment cycle -- typically about 6 pounds. But the researchers found no difference in their chances of having baby, even though those women did tend to produce a higher number of "mature," usable eggs.

Researchers are not sure why heavier women might have less success with infertility treatment. Obesity may affect the quality of the eggs or embryos a woman produces, Moragianni said, and heavy women sometimes have a less "receptive" uterus versus thinner women. There may also be a role for hormones, since body fat can affect the ovaries' hormone production.

In our office we lean towards a healthy lifestyle and not just dieting. The purpose is to help balance women using nutrition, acupuncture, and Chinese herbs to help increase the probability of success.

Here is a video to learn more about Acupuncture and IVF.