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Louise Mitchell
London Women’s Clinic
Can my weight and BMI affect fertility and IVF success rates?
Louise Mitchell advises that your weight and BMI can both affect fertility and IVF success rates, on both ends of the spectrum (underweight and overweight).
Transcript
Weight and BMI can both affect IVF and fertility success rates on both ends of the spectrum. So if ladies, for example, have a low BMI, so what we could class as anything under 18.5, this can lead to ladies having no periods, having no ovulation. So obviously, if they're not ovulating, if they're not having periods, it's gonna be difficult for them to get pregnant. The same can also be seen in ladies with high BMIs as well. Ladies with a high BMI can also see a reduction in periods and a reduction in ovulation.
For some ladies with high and low BMIs, they will conceive naturally, so it doesn't affect all ladies across this group. But we do know, for example, that ladies with a higher BMI, if they do manage to conceive, it's also therefore then putting them at further risk within pregnancy of things like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.