Women Born Small May Be at Risk of Infertility, Study Suggests

But more research needed to show whether being very small as baby girl makes a difference, authors say

By Robert Preidt

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

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TUESDAY, March 11, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Women who were very small
or underweight when they were born may be twice as likely to have
fertility problems as those who were normal size at birth, new research
suggests.

The study, published online March 10 in the journal BMJ Open,
included more than 1,200 women in Sweden who were born in 1973 or later
and sought fertility treatment with male partners between 2005 and 2010.

Fertility problems were associated with the women in 38.5 percent of
the cases, with their male partners in about 27 percent of the cases and
with both partners in just less than 7 percent, according to a journal
news release. The fertility problems were unexplained in 28 percent of
the cases.

Among women with fertility problems, slightly less than 4 percent had
been born prematurely, a similar percentage were underweight at birth
and about 6 percent were very small at birth.

The researchers concluded that women with fertility problems were
nearly 2.5 times more likely to have been underweight at birth, compared
to women in couples where the cause of infertility was associated with
the man or was unknown.

The findings held true even after the researchers accounted for known
risk factors for infertility in women, such as being overweight.

Although the study found an association between a woman's birth size
and infertility risk, it did not prove a cause-and-effect link.

Further research is needed to confirm a link between infertility and
low birth weight or small birth size, study author Dr. Josefin Vikstrom,
with the faculty of health sciences at Sweden's Linkoping University,
and colleagues said.

Knowing about such an association is important, they said, because
improved medical care means a growing number of underweight and very
small babies survive into adulthood.

SOURCE: BMJ Open, news release, March 10, 2014

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