The influence of lifestyle interventions and overweight on infertility: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of randomized controlled trials

Ana Sustarsic; Vedran Hadzic; Cécil J W Meulenberg; Ensar Abazovic; Mateja Videmsek; Tanja Burnik Papler; Armin H Paravlic

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1264947

The influence of lifestyle interventions and overweight on infertility: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of randomized controlled trials

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Nov 1:10:1264947. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1264947. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ana Sustarsic¹, Vedran Hadzic¹, Cécil J W Meulenberg², Ensar Abazovic³, Mateja Videmsek¹, Tanja Burnik Papler⁴, Armin H Paravlic^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Sports, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
² Science and Research Center Koper, Institute for Kinesiology Research, Koper, Slovenia.
³ Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁴ Division of Gynecology, Department of Human Reproduction, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
⁵ Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of lifestyle intervention (LSI) on diagnosed infertility in overweight and obese women. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted. A literature search was performed on the following databases from September 2022 to December 2022: PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus. The inclusion criteria were the following: women between 18 and 45 years of age, BMI over 25.0 kg/m², diagnosed with infertility, a weight loss intervention, and control group part of RCTs. In total, 15 studies were identified and included. The meta-analysis shows a beneficial effect of LSI on reducing weight, waist circumference, and BMI and increasing infertility. A significantly beneficial effect of lifestyle intervention on weight reduction was observed for participants who initially had a higher BMI, while a non-significant effect was observed for individuals with a BMI above 35 kg/m². The meta-analysis showed a beneficial effect of lifestyle intervention on ovulation incidence and sex hormone-binding globulin. The lifestyle intervention group had 11.23 times more ovulatory incidence than the control group, which in turn increased the ability to conceive. As robust evidence for the effect of lifestyle interventions on infertility in obese and overweight women was found, it is advised to integrate similar interventions into future infertility treatment processes.

Keywords: infertility; intervention; overweight; ovulation; physical activity; pregnancy.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, and authorship. This research was conducted under research programme KINESIOLOGY OF MONOSTRUCTURAL, POLYSTRUCTURAL AND CONVENTIONAL SPORTS (Project number P5-0147), which also covered the cost of the open access publication of this article.