Obesity, fertility and pregnancy: can we intervene to improve outcomes?

Rates of obesity among women of reproductive age have risen dramatically in recent decades. Obesity impacts on health of women across their reproductive lifespan with adverse effects on not only fertility and short-term complications of pregnancy, but also on longer term health outcomes for both women and their children. This places considerable burden and cost on health services. Here, we review the evidence linking maternal obesity to adverse fertility, pregnancy and longer term health outcomes for women and their children. We discuss the outcomes of recent lifestyle, pharmacological and surgical intervention studies. As many of these studies have not shown a significant improvement in clinical outcomes, we discuss the need for better study design in future trials.