- 2601 Lake Dr, Ste 301, Raleigh, NC, United States, North Carolina
- info@carolinaconceptions.com
- (919) 782-5911
Your weight and overall health can have a direct impact on fertility—for both women and men. Maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) improves your chances of conceiving naturally, supports fertility treatments, and helps ensure a safe pregnancy.
At Carolina Conceptions Fertility, we include BMI in every fertility evaluation so we can recommend the best next steps for you.
If you are looking for natural ways to improve fertility, reaching a healthier weight may be a significant opportunity.
Women: Being underweight or overweight can affect ovulation, menstrual cycles, response to fertility medication, and pregnancy outcomes.
Men: Weight can impact testosterone, sperm production, and even erectile function.
Even small, healthy changes make a difference. For example, losing just 5–10% of body weight can significantly boost fertility in overweight patients.
It is important to note that BMI is a helpful tool, but not a precise indicator of health and ideal body weight. BMI can be less accurate in those with less common body compositions, and for those of some races and ethnicities. Measuring BMI is a great starting point for determining how your health may impact your fertility, but care should also be taken to evaluate other markers that can indicate if your body is at a healthy weight for you. Even those with a BMI in the healthy range could greatly benefit their fertility through various lifestyle improvements.
To know your current BMI, this free BMI calculator will help you find out. The healthiest BMI range for conception is between 19 and 24.
Your fertility physicians can provide more personalized weight recommendations as needed. Weight is very personal, and its impact varies greatly for each patient. For these reasons, we do a comprehensive workup exploring all factors that could impact fertility.
We also encourage both partners to have a primary care doctor and an awareness of family health history concerning diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol.
Overweight women experience lower fertilization rates and produce poorer quality embryos. Women with a BMI over 30 have lower pregnancy rates and higher rates of loss and complications, even if their ovulation cycles are healthy.
Unhealthy weight (including low body weight) can contribute to problems with ovulation, such as irregular ovulation (oligo-ovulation) or no ovulation at all (anovulation). Ovulatory disorders also include thyroid dysfunction and premature ovarian failure.
Women with a BMI under 18 or over 29 should schedule a thorough hormonal evaluation to check ovulation.
Having a healthy menstrual cycle is part of fertility health – but being both under or overweight can disrupt this cycle, or even stop it completely.
PCOS is a condition where small cysts develop along a woman’s ovaries. While PCOS is considered an ovulatory disorder, its impact goes beyond ovulation. It negatively affects fertility by causing irregular ovulation, hormonal imbalances, and more. Those with this condition can be trapped in a difficult cycle where PCOS contributes to weight gain, but weight gain exacerbates PCOS symptoms.
Carolina Conceptions Fertility has expertise in helping those with PCOS achieve pregnancy. If you have any related symptoms, please get evaluated! PCOS is common, yet very much underdiagnosed.
At Carolina Conceptions Fertility, women with a BMI over 42 are not candidates for fertility treatment and are encouraged to consider a weight loss program or bariatric surgery as advised by their physician. Women must have a BMI under 37 to be eligible for in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor egg recipiency, and donor embryo recipiency.
Gradual, sustained weight loss provides the most benefit for fertility treatment. In one study, researchers found that women across all BMI categories benefited from moderate physical activity with improved time to pregnancy.
Overweight or underweight men may have lower sperm count, motility, or abnormal shape. A higher weight can also increase the temperature of the scrotum, thus reducing sperm quality..
In underweight and overweight men, testosterone may decrease and cause low sperm concentration, morphology, and motility. Estrogen levels may also rise, which lowers the sperm count
Men who are overweight are more likely to experience ED. High BMI alone can cause ED, but it can also cause additional issues. Weight can contribute to conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Each condition can independently cause ED, too.
If weight is impacting fertility, our team can connect you with trusted local resources for nutrition, weight management, and bariatric surgery. Options include:
Phone: (919) 324-0887
“Stop Dieting & Start Healing” with Dr. William Ferro. Great success with PCOS, diabetes, digestion, hypertension and weight loss. A personal, remote, health concierge maps out a customized trial week of the Betr method eating plan paired with all-natural supplements to support digestion, support metabolism and reduce cravings. Call for a trial week.
Phone: (919) 423-2005
“Nutritional Education & Results-Driven Weight Loss” with Katy Harris. Katy offers 8 and 12 week programs to help you reach your nutritional goals and works in exercise after you start seeing success with nutrition. Katy was retired founder Dr. Grace Couchman’s personal trainer. No supplements or intense workouts.
Phone: (919) 436-3777
“Physician Supervised Medical Wellness & Weight Loss Clinic” covered by insurance. Customized lifestyle modification programs focused on healthy eating and more. The first visit is free.
Phone: (919) 784-7874
Surgical weight loss options with educational resources before and after surgery including private counseling and group support, along with healthy cooking demonstrations.
Read our blog for more information about infertility, IVF and more.