A crisis is born

Slim down our girls or fertility issues beckons

AUSTRALIA will face a fertility crisis among the next generation of girls unless we halt the expanding growth of their waistlines, experts warn.

And even if our daughters lose the weight in adulthood, if they go through puberty with excess weight they are more likely to retain long-term fertility problems.

One in four Australian children is considered overweight or obese, and the issue is growing with one in three expected to be an unhealthy weight by 2028, according to Obesity Australia.

The warning comes as Aussie researchers also identified that pregnant Asian women should not follow standard body mass index (BMI) guidelines for weight gain or they could face increased risk of pregnancy complications.

Professor Helena Teede, director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation, said the nation must wake up to the crisis.

“Mums and dads need to be teaching their kids the importance of healthy weight from childhood,” she said. “If girls go through adolescence with excess weight, they risk impacting their fertility.”

Fertility Society of Australia president Michael Chapman predicted there would be a rise in Australian couples seeking assistance because of weight issues from pre-pubescence.

One in six Australian couples seek assistance with fertility, but Prof Chapman said it could increase to one in five.

“Girls from the ages of eight to 10 who carry excess weight are more likely to develop polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can lead to fertility issues,” he said.

“Parents need to realise they may not get any grandchildren unless they ensure a proper diet for their children.”

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone said GPs were seeing more and

more overweight children. “Even from a much younger age, from early primary school onwards,” Dr Bartone said.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the full gamut of issues related to obesity prevalence … the endocrine system of the body is hugely complex and increases in weight at any age have the potential to impact the way the body responds at other points in the journey.”

Australian researchers found Asian women had been given the wrong advice on pregnancy weight gain and should not use standard BMI measurements.

Prof Teede’s team, along with Medibank, has developed a new pregnancy weight calculator that factors in ethnicity, on top of the traditional height and weight.

The Monash group studied 1.3 million pregnancies and previous research to show conclusively an accurate recommended weight gain — factoring in ethnicity — is important to prevent pregnancy-related complications.

The findings have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Prof Teede said 60 per cent of Australian mothers put on too much weight during pregnancy.

“For the first time we’ve worked out that sticking to the recommended weight gain is important to prevent complications during pregnancy and that the recommended weight gain is different based on ethnicity, particularly for Asian women,” she said.

But Prof Chapman said he believed too much focus on weight gain during pregnancy caused stress among mothers.

“I don’t even weigh patients anymore — I’m not convinced that weight gain in pregnancy is a vital factor,” he said.