When you plan to conceive and visit the doctor, one of the things that they ask to do is to maintain a normal BMI. If you are overweight they ask you to reduce and if you are underweight they ask you to put on. So what is this BMI? In what way is it related to your conception? If you want to know about these do read below.

What is BMI?
         BMI is body mass index that is used to calculate whether your weight is in accordance with your height. BMI is simply calculated by dividing your weight by height in m². A healthy BMI ranges between 18.5 to 24.9 Above or below it is termed to be overweight/obesity or underweight.

How is BMI related to fertility?
         One thing to understand is that when planning to conceive it is not just that the women should be at ideal BMI. The male should also have an ideal BMI for proper conception. When a person has excessive fat in their tummy, the body produces more insulin to burn it. When the insulin is produced in excess it disturbs both the female and male hormones affecting the egg and sperm quality.

High BMI
In Women - A good alignment of the pelvis is necessary for proper conception. In case of overweight women the pelvis is misaligned which leads to delayed conception. Also a higher amount of a hormone called leptin is found in people with high fat. This hormone also reduces your fertility. It also causes issues with ovulation such as delayed ovulation or anovulation (where the ovulation doesn’t even take place). 

In Men - Overweight men have low sperm count and low motility compared to the men who have normal BMI. Obese males also experience sexual dysfunction problems such as erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.

Low BMI
In Women - According to research, women who are underweight take an additional year to conceive compared to those with healthy BMI. Women who are underweight have hormonal imbalance which makes them have irregular periods. Irregular periods in turn causes delayed ovulation or anovulation. A study found that periods delay even up to 2-3 years in underweight women. For some, periods are regular but still they don’t ovulate due to low BMI. Women with low BMI have a higher rate of IVF failure since it lowers your estrogen levels which is a necessary hormone for conceiving.

In Males - Men who are underweight have low sperm volume, count and motility compared to those who have normal BMI. This is because men who are underweight produce low testosterone which is the necessary hormone for the production of sperm. Having a low BMI not just means you are thin and underweight, it also includes a person who lacks a normal amount of body fat. Men who lack body fat have higher risk of having erectile dysfunction and they have low libido. This is more common in athletes and men who do intense workouts since they lack body fat.

         Exercising and having a healthy diet are the key to have a normal BMI. According to a study, if you lose weight in case of high BMI or gain weight if you have low BMI, your chance of conceiving increases by 27 percent.