Obese women no less likely to give birth after IVF, study suggests

As the nation's assisted reproduction experts weigh whether obese women should be refused fertility treatments, a new study finds obese women are as likely to get pregnant and have a baby following IVF as women of normal weight.

Dalhousie University researchers who looked at 752 women who underwent IVF, or invitro-fertilization, at a private fertility clinic in Halifax found obese women do not require higher doses of fertility drugs.

There were also no significant differences in the odds of achieving a pregnancy or live birth between normal weight, overweight and obese women.

Growing numbers of obese women are seeking treatment for infertility. But some IVF clinics in Canada are imposing strict BMI cutoffs, a controversial practice that is expected to resurface at the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society's annual meeting in September.

The British Fertility Society recommended in 2006 that women with a BMI, or body mass index, greater than 35 be denied IVF. Some clinics in New Zealand have a BMI cutoff of 32.

But the Halifax team says their findings suggest "that there may be insufficient justification for placing these arbitrary BMI restrictions on IVF treatment access."

Other fertility experts said the study was too small to draw conclusions, and that it goes against much larger studies showing overweight and obese women have lower pregnancy and live birthrates, as well as higher rates of miscarriage and other complications following fertility treatments.

During IVF, eggs are retrieved from a woman's ovaries for fertilization using an ultrasound-guided needle.

"Technically, the more fat there is in the body, the more fat there is down in the pelvis," said Dr. Arthur Leader, cofounder of the Ottawa Fertility Centre, which will not perform IVF on women with a BMI higher than 35.

"An egg retrieval becomes more risky because you have to put the needle in further, in order to access the ovaries."

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Obese women no less likely to give birth after IVF, study suggests