As American waistlines continue to expand, research shows that increasing obesity could cut some couples' fertility in half, leading ultimately to a population decline, says one expert in fertility and obesity.
According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 66 percent of all adults in the US are overweight or obese. More than 75 percent of all adults in the US are projected to be overweight or obese by 2015.
Those extra pounds come with a cost, especially when it comes to having a child.
While it's long-been known that obesity has some effect on fertility, overweight women face other little-known, but major risks," says Dr. Alex Polotsky of University of Colorado Advanced Reproductive Medicine, author of "Obesity and Female Fertility" (Endocrine News, June 2012).
According to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Dec 2010), women who are obese face a 120-percent increase in difficulties with conception/infertility, a 67-percent increase in miscarriage, and a 124-percent increase in some birth defects.
According to Polotsky, an expert on obesity and fertility, the problem is compounded by overweight male partners. Men who are obese have a 42-percent higher chance of having very low sperm and more than an 80 percent chance of having no sperm as compared to men of normal weight man.