SAN DIEGO – Conception is more likely if obese women lose weight and make other healthy lifestyle changes. What hasn’t been known until now is that the same holds true for their male partners, according to a prospective trial from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Forty-nine overweight women who were having a hard time conceiving worked with nutritionists, kinesiologists, and counselors there to improve their chances. When the investigators invited partners to join them, 25 men accepted the offer.
The men tended to be overweight and sedentary, too, compared with Canadian averages, and the program didn’t do much to change that. Even so, after about 1.5 years follow-up, couples were 33% more likely to conceive for each 1% of weight the men lost (odds ratio, 1.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.83, P = .013), with similar benefits for cutting back on soda, eating more fruits and vegetables, and other healthy diet changes.
Senior investigator Dr. Jean-Patrice Baillargeon, a professor of medicine at Sherbrooke, explained
the implications of those findings in an interview at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting.