Woman’s waist size may be contributing factor to infertility, study says

BOSTON – One in four couples struggle with infertility and a new study finds that a woman’s waist size may be a contributing factor.

A team in China studied more than 3,000 women of reproductive age and found that the chances of getting pregnant declined as waist size increased, independent of a woman’s body mass index or BMI. In fact, for every 1 cm increase in waist circumference, the risk of infertility increased by 3 percent.

Women with the largest waist sizes were more than 2 ½ times more likely to suffer from infertility than women with the smallest. However, researchers said that moderate physical activity can help lower the risk of infertility associated with abdominal obesity.