BMJ  2006;332:609 (11 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7541.609-b

Letter

Obesity, polycystic ovary syndrome, infertility treatment

Asking obese women to lose weight before treatment increases stigmatisation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—As Balen et al say,1 epidemiological data show that obesity is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, long term maintenance of weight loss among obese populations is low, estimated at 15% over at least three years of follow-up in one systematic review.2 Weight loss in shorter term studies, whether of dietary or pharmacologic treatments, six months to two years in duration, does not generally exceed a mean of 5-10 kg, and typically is closer to 3 kg, after accounting for placebo effects.

This translates to less than a 2-4 kg/m2 reduction (or in more typical results, just over 1 kg/m2) in body mass index (BMI) for a woman of average height. These estimates are generous, because typical lifestyle and drug trials for weight loss suffer from non-compliance or dropout rates exceeding 30%,3 and participants who drop out of weight loss trials frequently do so because of treatment . . . [Full text of this article]

Sheila E Laredo, assistant professor

Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, 790 Bay St, Ste 855 Toronto, ON, Canada, M5G 1N8 sheila.laredo@sw.ca


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Relevant Article

Should obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome receive treatment for infertility?
Adam H Balen, Martin Dresner, Eleanor M Scott, and James O Drife
BMJ 2006 332: 434-435. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Vahratian, A., Smith, Y. R. (2009). Should access to fertility-related services be conditional on body mass index?. Hum Reprod 24: 1532-1537 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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