Obesity and its negative impact on the fertility of women of reproductive age

The global increase in obesity and its pronounced nega­tive impact on the female reproductive system is of particular importance for clinical practice. The purpose of this review was to highlight the main pathophysiological mechanisms of obesity influence on the development of fertility in women of reproductive age. Currently, obesity has reached epidemic levels among women of reproductive age with a multitude of consequences. It predisposes to several reproductive complications that ultimately affect the level of fertility. Obesity leads to changes in sex hormone content due to increased estrogen levels, which, in turn, disrupts the normal processes necessary for the development of a receptive endome­trium. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome, who also suffer from obesity, demonstrate a more severe metabolic and reproductive phenotype and have reduced fertility even with eumenorrhea and worse results when using in vitro fertilization. Thus, the impact of obesity on fertility is multifaceted: hormonal disruptions, insulin resistance, inflammatory processes and adipocytokine dysfunction create an unfavorable environment for normal ovarian function and ensuring high-quality ovulation. The influence of this pandemic on women’s reproductive capacity is a relevant and urgent problem of today that needs to be investigated. The search was conducted in Scopus, Science Direct (from Elsevier) and PubMed, including MEDLINE databases. The keywords used were “obesity”, “female fertility” and “infertility”. A manual search of the bibliography of publications was used to identify study results that could not be found during the online search.