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Obesity -
Obesity 2008
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Written by Frank Mangano
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Tuesday, 23 September 2008 01:17 |
Want to Have Kids? ‘Fat’ Chance!
Heart disease. Stroke. Cancer. Kidney stones. Diabetes. Gout. Arthritis. Sleep apnea. Asthma. These are just a few of the health risks that increase with obesity. And according to a study published in Fertility and Sterility, you can add infertility to this potbellied list.
One tends to associate infertility with females, but in actuality, infertility affects men just as much as it does women (Among married couples, one-third of the time it’s male-related, one-third of the time it’s female-related, the remaining third of the time the issue is either unknown or both the male and female are infertile). And while the rates of infertility are fairly equal, when it comes to obesity and who it impacts the most, it all depends on the country you’re talking about (For example, in Britain, there are more obese men than obese women, while in the United States, it’s just the opposite).
Whichever sex it impacts the most – male or female – the prevalence of obesity in men could render that question moot if birth rates start falling as a result (granted, this is a worst case scenario, but that’s ultimately what could end up happening).
To state the patently obvious, there are many things differentiating men from women, not the least of which are the kinds of hormones coursing through males and females’ veins– females having more estrogen, males having more testosterone. But the differentiation in hormone production is not only male to female but male to male as well. Of course, testosterone levels naturally differ among men, the level typically being dependent on age, but researchers from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine found that girth size played a role as well.
When researchers from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine looked at men’s body mass index and the amount of testosterone they had in their blood stream, men with a lower body mass index had higher testosterone levels than their obese counterparts. To add insult to injury, the obese men had higher estrogen levels. This oddity, according to the researchers, has the potential of decreasing the production of other reproductive hormones, perhaps explaining why crucial luteinizing hormones and follicle-stimulating hormones were also lower in obese men.
This research piggybacks on a study published in the journal Epidemiology in 2006, which showed a correlation between a man’s body mass index and the likelihood of him being in a relationship where infertility was an issue (the study found commonalities between BMI and infertility in women as well).
But in some respects, if you’ll forgive my cliché, this finding is somewhat akin to putting the cart before the horse. Why? Because before one can determine his fertility level, one has to be, shall we say, “in the mood” first. For instance, in 2004, a Duke University Medical Center survey found that obese people were far more likely to suffer from a diminished libido than thinner males.
I don’t meant to pile on, but the problems associated with obesity have a domino-like effect: its impact on one aspect of life impacts another thing, impacts another thing, impacts another, ultimately rendering life far less enjoyable and far less meaningful. I can’t think of anything more meaningful than bringing life into the world, but the chances of that happening are thin if a man’s size is too wide.
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