Obesity can also increase sub-fecundity or sub-fertility, which is the inability to conceive a child in 12 months.
Expressing concern over the obesity-linked sub-fecundity, lead researcher Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen said, "If overweight and obesity actually is a cause of sub-fecundity, and if the obesity epidemic continues, this reduced capacity to reproduce could become a serious public health problem. Further research in this area is needed."
According to ANI reports, researchers studied 47,835 Danish couples between 1996 and 2002. The findings revealed that if both partners were obese the chances of the couple having to wait for more than a year before the woman became pregnant were nearly three times higher (2.74) than for a normal weight couple.
It was also found that for every 2.2 pounds of weight loss, the reduction of time for the couple to conceive naturally slashes to an average of 5.5 days. Overweight women have a 78 percent greater risk of infertility than their normal weight counterparts.
In the case of men, the study found that there was a 49 percent risk of infertility if they are overweight or obese. The research is published online in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal, Human Reproduction.
