Culture Post: Overweight Boys More Likely to Be Infertile Men

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

A new paper in the European Journal of Endocrinology,indicates that overweight boys tend to have lower testicular volume, putting them at risk for infertility in adulthood.

The investigators collected data on testicular volume, age, body mass index, and insulin resistance in 268 children and adolescents. They found that boys with normal weight had a 1.5 times higher testicular volume compared to those who were overweight or obese in peripubertal age.

Children and adolescents in the study with normal insulin levels had 1.5-2 times higher testicular volume compared to those with hyperinsulinemia, a condition often associated with type 2 diabetes in which patients have higher insulin levels in their blood. Thus, those with overweight or obesity, hyperinsulinemia or insulin resistance showed lower testicular volume than their healthy peers.

Since lower testicular volume predicts poorer sperm production in adulthood, the researchers here believe that weight loss could help patients avoid infertility later in life.

“In this study, we found that being overweight or obese was associated with a lower peri-pubertal testicular volume. In addition, obesity-related comorbidities, such as hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, have been found to influence testicular volume in pre- and post-puberty. Therefore, we speculate that more careful control of body weight in childhood could represent a prevention strategy for maintaining testicular function later in life,” said Rossella Cannarella, one of the authors of the paper.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://consumer.healthday.com/social-media-2659915870.html

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