Thinking about starting a family and beginning the journey to conception can be a struggle for many couples. No matter what situation, the planning, decision-making, and life changing considerations are a stress in themselves.
But more and more couples are finding they are experiencing issues once they begin trying to conceive. In fact, the NHS say that 1 in 7 couples may have difficulty in conceiving, and if they’ve been trying to conceive without success for over 3 years, the likelihood of pregnancy in the future is unfortunately low.
So many people go into the baby-making process taking conception as a given – but many factors go into a person’s fertility, including weight. When you are a women living with obesity, you are less likely to become pregnant naturally or even conceive with the help of medical intervention. When you are a man living with obesity, this can impact the quality of your sperm, decreasing the likelihood of a successful fertilisation.
With more than a quarter of adults living with obesity up and down the UK, these issues are not going away any time soon. That’s why weight loss is often suggested by healthcare professionals to men and women who are struggling to conceive – no matter how they are choosing to do it.
In this deep dive, the team at Bodyline are hoping to help you understand the role weight plays in fertility treatments, with scientifically backed advice and discussion. For those who struggle with losing weight, we explain how groundbreaking options to aid in weight loss has made this a less daunting task when trying for a baby – thanks to medical weight loss treatments such as GLP-1 injections.
To find out more, keep reading, give us a call on 0800 995 6036, or fill in our contact form for a call back.
Contact Bodyline today to find out more about our safe and effective weight loss programmes and range of treatment options.
What is fertility?
Before we explain exactly why your weight impacts your fertility, we want to explain what goes into fertility for both men and women.
Fertility is a person’s ability to make babies, based on their biological traits. For men, it’s about the quality of their sperm and whether it can successfully fertilise a woman’s egg during sexual intercourse. For women, fertility is more complicated as it is about ovulation, a hospitable uterus/womb, and the ability to carry a foetus for the whole 9 months – to full term.
Infertility is when a person struggles to conceive or make a baby. Common misconceptions put the onus of fertility on women, however both men and women can struggle with infertility, with men being solely responsible for 20% of couples’ inability to conceive, and partly responsible in another 30-40%.
There are two types of infertility, primary and secondary. Primary infertility is where a person who has never conceived a child in the past is struggling to conceive, while secondary infertility is where someone who has had 1 or more pregnancies previously but has difficulties after that.
According to the NHS, common causes of infertility include:
- lack of regular ovulation (the monthly release of an egg)
- poor quality semen
- blocked or damaged fallopian tubes
- endometriosis – a condition where the tissue that is like the lining of the womb grows outside the womb
However, research shows that common lifestyle factors including obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and stress can contribute to fertility issues. Medical advice to increase the likelihood of conception includes lifestyle changes to combat any negative effects on fertility.
What are the medical options for fertility?
While struggling with fertility can be an incredibly upsetting experience, there are some medical options available to couples, either privately if they can afford it, or through the NHS.
These options include
- Treatment for lack of regular ovulation
- Assisted conception such as intrauterine insemination (IUI)
- In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
- Surgical procedures such as treatment for endometriosis, repair of the fallopian tubes, or removal of scarring (adhesions) within the womb or abdominal cavity
Many women trying to get pregnant will have heard of IVF, as it is a commonly known treatment option for those living with infertility.
According to the NHS, IVF is where an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop. The eggs and sperm are sometimes donated, this depends on circumstances.
However, not everyone who is struggling with infertility may be given the opportunity to receive IVF on the NHS. Guidelines to allow IVF to couples are strict as each round of IVF costs around £5000, and integrated care boards who make the decisions on who receives IVF can be even stricter.
Therefore, if you are a candidate for IVF treatment, it is important to do as much as possible to maximise the chances of it successfully working for you so you can have a baby.
The NHS has a lot of advice on what we can do to increase the chances of pregnancy, and how to be healthy throughout pregnancy, but living a healthy lifestyle and being at a healthy weight is important.
What does weight have to do with fertility?
Whether your weight is too high or too low can have an impact on your chances of getting pregnant, that’s why the NHS advise that being a healthy weight is important. What’s more, if you are overweight or underweight, that can reduce the efficacy of fertility treatments and increase the risk of pregnancy complications.
This happens because being underweight, overweight, or in the obese category, can cause problems for the ovaries when the time comes to release an egg. In other words, your weight can cause ovulation issues, making it harder for a sperm to fertilise the egg and produce a foetus.
Additionally, body mass index in the obese range can lead to irregular periods (menstrual cycles) and lack of ovulation, decreasing the likelihood of conception.
But research shows that even obese women with regular periods have lower pregnancy rates compared to women with a healthy BMI, as being overweight can impact the way your body responds to the fertility drugs.
One study recorded the following results:
“Fertilization rates are poorer, and the embryo quality is impaired in younger women who are obese. Pregnancy rate in some studies is lower and there is an increased risk of early pregnancy loss. Weight loss regularizes menstrual cycles and increases the chance of spontaneous ovulation and conception in anovulatory overweight and obese women. Gradual sustained weight loss is beneficial whereas crash dieting is detrimental.” – Pandey et al. 2010
How could losing weight help my fertility?
As described above, gradual and sustained weight loss is beneficial for women who are finding their weight is impacting their ability to conceive, thanks to its effects on the menstrual cycles and ovulation frequency.
In one large analysis of several studies, experts and researchers found that lifestyle changes for weight loss showed a positive effect on infertility, thanks to the rise in ovulation incidence as well as increasing sex hormones.
In fact, those women who had consistent healthy lifestyle changes had more than 11 times the incidences of ovulation compared to the control group (the women who didn’t have lifestyle changes). Increased numbers of ovulation mean more eggs released, meaning more chances to conceive!
The problem arises, however, in the difficulties that can come with attempting to lose weight alone, with just changes in diet and exercise, particularly if underlying issues impact the ability to lose that weight.
Obesity is not just based on lifestyle factors – some people make all the necessary changes and still don’t see the weight loss – weight can also be impacted by genetics, medical history, ethnicity, culture, career choices, and hormone levels.
Until very recently, this meant that those who struggled with obesity through no fault of their own were unable to make the changes required to help them conceive a baby, at least without serious medical intervention.
However, thanks to recent groundbreaking advancements in medical obesity treatment, we can use new medications to aid positive lifestyle changes for weight loss.
At Bodyline, we’ve been helping men and women boost their weight health for over 18 years, but with thanks to medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide, we’ve seen results like never before.
Medical weight loss for fertility
Semaglutide and tirzepatide are weight loss medications that come in the form of injections. They are more commonly known as their brand names, WeGovy and Mounjaro, respectively.
Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist – meaning it mimics the GLP-1 hormones made naturally in the body to encourage weight loss. GLP-1 plays a crucial role in the body regulating blood sugar levels, controlling appetite, and aiding in insulin production, so semaglutide helps to slow down digestion, increase satiety, and reduce food intake further – increasing weight loss.
GLP-1 is found in WeGovy and Mounjaro, however Mounjaro’s active ingredient contains a second hormone. It is classified as a ‘dual-agonist’, and helps users lose even more weight than those who use a single-agonist medication like WeGovy.
Mounjaro’s active ingredient, tirzepatide, contains glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), boosting weight loss by targeting two hormones.
Both injectable therapies are prescription only and exclusive to individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, or those with a BMI between 27 and 30 who also have weight-related health problems according to MHRA guidelines.
However, tirzepatide is regarded as a powerful tool in the field of weight loss, as it has surpassed the effectiveness of other single hormone GLP-1 injectable therapies. Clinical trials comparing Mounjaro to WeGovy saw Mounjaro users lose 5.7kg (12.6lbs) more than those using WeGovy on average.
These injectable therapies have had little time on the market, so literature showing links between their usage and an impact on fertility is limited, however scientists have found encouraging effects of medical weight loss injections on both female and male reproductive fertility improvement.
One review says GLP-1 receptor agonists show improvements in fertility as they have been shown to improve ovulation rates and regulation in the menstrual cycle in women, and improved sperm motility and male sex hormones in men, but that more human studies are needed to confirm this further.
Bodyline’s supportive treatment programmes for you and your fertility goals
Bodyline has been offering medical weight loss treatments to patients for a number of years, and every patient has a unique reason as to why they have come to us.
That’s why our programmes are built holistically around your goals, so if you are seeking medical weight loss treatment with a goal of improving your fertility or receiving IVF, we urge you to get in touch and consider speaking to one of our experienced staff members.
We tailor our offerings around YOU.
Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can support you along your weight loss and infertility journey. Call us on 0800 995 6036 or fill in an online contact form for a call back.
