Are you too skinny to conceive?

It’s long been accepted that being overweight can affect your chances of falling pregnant, but a new study has shown that being underweight can have an even bigger impact on your fertility, with experts saying the trend for young girls to maintain an overly-skinny physique could have consequences far beyond poor self-esteem.

Dr Richard Sherbahn, a fertility specialist at the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, analysed the success rates of 2500 couples undergoing IVF treatment at the clinic over an eight-year period, and was surprised to find that just 34% of women classified as ‘underweight’ successfully conceived, compared to 45% of obese women, and more than 50% of women within the healthy weight range.

The women in the underweight group produced similar numbers of eggs to those in the other two groups, so Dr Sherbahn believes that the problem must occur at a later stage in the conception process, suggesting that the embryos may have found it more difficult to implant because the body was undernourished.

“It could be in evolutionary terms that if people were too thin that maybe food wasn’t readily available and maybe it wasn’t the best time to reproduce and maybe the uterus wasn’t at its best.”

He is concerned that while most women are aware that being overweight affects their fertility, most don’t realise that being underweight can be even more damaging.

“It seems that the ideal body structure for young women is this overly-skinny physique and women don’t understand that there is any concern about that.”

He advises that women who are trying to get pregnant should get as close to their recommended healthy weight as possible to maximise their chances of conception.

Fertility specialists in the UK agree, with Charles Kingsland, a consultant gynaecologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and member of the British Fertility Society saying that there is no doubt women who have the appropriate bodyweight for their height have a much higher chance of conception.

“‘For some people, getting pregnant is very easy but for others it is difficult and it is important to look at your bodyweight.”

Has being too thin affected your fertility? Have you had to gain or lose weight in order to fall pregnant?

Share your story on our forums now.