Surrogate obesity negatively impacts pregnancy rates in third-party reproduction

Endometrial gene expression in the window of implantation is altered in obese women especially in association with polycystic ovary syndrome

“…The ongoing pregnancy rate per cycle initiated was significantly lower among obese women than among lean and healthy controls, highlighting the role of the endometrium or its environment in poor reproductive performance. Two other recent clinical studies using ovum donation in surrogate mothers (27) and frozen embryos (28) have reached similar conclusions. A recent multicenter retrospective study did not find poorer results in obese oocyte recipients, but confounding factors were not controlled, including the BMI of oocyte donors, which was unknown (16).…”

“…Dessolle et al (28) included 450 cycles of ovum donation with nonselected frozen embryos, showing that recipients with BMI >30 kg/m 2 presented significantly lower pregnancy rates; this BMI threshold was demonstrated to be an independent negative predictor for pregnancy in a multivariate analysis in which other factors such as maternal age were also considered. DeUgarte et al (27) assessed surrogate mothers who received donated ova and nonseverely altered sperm samples. Those with a BMI above 35 kg/m 2 yielded significantly lower implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates than those whose BMI was <35 kg/m 2 .…”

Outcome of assisted reproductive technology in overweight and obese women

“…It has been suggested that obese patients require higher doses of gonadotropins, have a lower response to ovarian stimulation, higher cancellation rates, reduced number of oocytes retrieved, poorer oocyte quality, lower fertilization rates, less number of mature oocytes and poorer embryo quality ( Pandey et al , 2010 ). DeUgarte et al (2010) also showed that women with a BMI ≥ 35kg/m 2 have lower implantation, pregnancy and live birth rates than women with BMI < 35kg/m 2 . Moreover, Luke et al (2011) found reduced pregnancy rates with autologous but not with donor oocytes in obese women, suggesting impaired oocytes and poor embryo quality.…”

Obesity and reproduction: a committee opinion

“…Obesity also appears to alter endometrial receptivity during IVF since third-party surrogate women with a BMI >35 kg/ m 2 have a lower live-birth rate (25%) compared with those with a BMI <35 kg/m 2 (49%, P< .05) (66). Obese women also have a different pattern of endometrial gene expression during implantation than lean women, which is more pronounced in the presence of infertility (67).…”