BOSTON – One in four couples struggle with infertility and a new study finds that a woman’s waist size may be a contributing factor.

A team in China studied more than 3,000 women of reproductive age and found that the chances of getting pregnant declined as waist size increased, independent of a woman’s body mass index or BMI. In fact, for every 1 cm increase in waist circumference, the risk of infertility increased by 3 percent.

Women with the largest waist sizes were more than 2 ½ times more likely to suffer from infertility than women with the smallest. However, researchers said that moderate physical activity can help lower the risk of infertility associated with abdominal obesity.  

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.