There are social rules of etiquette that say you never ask a woman her age or her weight, but both of those things can play an important part in a woman's quest to get pregnant.
Whether a woman wants to hear it or not, her weight can be the only thing that is stopping her from conceiving.
If this is the case, the only thing a woman can and should do, is get her weight as close to where it should be as possible.
Just a few pounds can be the difference between conceiving and receiving an infertile diagnosis.
Because excess estrogen is stored in fat cells, that extra weight could be acting like birth control and keeping her body from developing and releasing an ovum each cycle.
Worst of all, she may not even know that she is not ovulating until she sees a doctor and has blood tests done.
It's not always a matter of needing to lose a lot of weight.
Many times, losing just 5% of your total body weight can make a big difference.
If a woman weighs 200 pounds, a loss of just 10 pounds can be enough to get her to start ovulating again, making pregnancy possible.
On the other side of the coin are women that are either underweight or have very little fat on their bodies.
Think of a distance runner that may have a "normal" weight, but has almost no fat stores at all.
Because fat stores play a role in estrogen storage, women without the needed body fat also cannot get pregnant because they do not ovulate either.
So what is a woman to do if she finds that she is either over or under weight? First and most important, talk to your doctor and let them know that you want to get pregnant and that you know that your current weight is playing a part in your fertility issues.
A doctor can best advise you on how to either lose some weight safely or how to increase your body's fat stores without compromising your health.
In order to get pregnant you want your body mass index or BMI to be between 19 and 24.
There are many websites with BMI calculators so you can figure your own BMI.
Once you have your BMI figured out, your next step will be to work with your doctor to either gain or lose weight as needed.
Just how important a woman's weight is can be seen in the following statistics.
Women with BMIs of 29 and above saw a decrease of their fertility by 4% for each increase in their BMI according to a study published in the Oxford Journals at humrep.
oxfordjournals.
org/cgi/content/abstract/dem371v1 Don't let your weight hold you back and keep you from getting pregnant.
Work with your doctor and your partner to make adjustments to your eating and exercise routines.
Always remember that small changes that you make to your weight can be all you really need to do to finally get that positive pregnancy test result.