Weight is a factor in Infertility

It is important for teenagers to adopt and maintain healthy eating habits. Teenagers’ unhealthy weights can affect their fertility rate in their adulthood. Teenagers who are underweight or overweight are likely to have fewer children than they normally would if they were normal weight. Abnormal body weight can cause difficulties and complications in reproductions and pregnancies. It is unclear, though, if teenagers with abnormal body weights would have fewer children than teenagers with normal body weights.

In a recently finished study, researchers studied about 1,300 Finnish men and women. The research started in 1980 when the subjects were between the ages of three and eighteen and ended when they reached their adulthood and were reproducing. The research measured their body mass index (BMI) and kept a record of their health. The study showed that adults who were underweight as teenagers had 10 to 16 percent fewer children than adults who were normal weight as teenagers. Also, adults who were overweight as teenagers had 32 to 38 percent fewer children than adults who were normal weight as teenagers.

This study shows that the body weight during teen years can have a major impact on the fertility rate in the adulthood. Even if teenagers who have abnormal body weights eventually manage to have normal body weights as adults, their teen BMI can still decrease their fertility rate. For females, being underweight can break their menstrual cycle. For males, being both underweight and overweight can decrease sperm quality. For both males and females, being overweight can create problems and dysfunctions in the reproductive system.