Being obese may dim a man's chances of becoming a father, even if he is otherwise healthy, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among 87 healthy men ages 19 to 48, those who were obese were less likely to have ever fathered a child. More importantly, they showed hormonal differences that point to a reduced reproductive capacity, the researchers report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
Compared with their thinner counterparts, obese men had lower levels of testosterone in their blood, as well as lower levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) -- both essential to reproduction.
According to the researchers, these relatively low levels of LH and FSH are suggestive of a "partial" hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. This is a condition in which the testes do not function properly due to signaling problems in the hypothalamus or pituitary gland, two brain structures involved in hormone secretion.
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Ok, let's add obesity to the list men should avoid if they ever want to father children.
This week alone we learned that men should avoid heated car seats, avoid putting cell phones in their pants pockets, and today we learned that they should avoid being too overweight if they hope to maintain their fertility and father children.
Uh huh.
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