Link between obesity and birthing twins may be partially explained by higher IVF rates

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-01-10 03:00

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Higher BMI in women is associated with a greater chance of having twins, and this could be partially due to higher rates of assisted reproduction, according to international research. The team say previous research has linked obesity and being overweight with a higher chance of birthing twins and the use of assisted reproductive technology is also associated with more twin births. Previous research has also shown women with obesity or who are overweight are more likely to use assisted reproduction, they say, so the team looked at birth data from British Columbia to see if assisted reproduction could explain why obesity was linked to twin births. The researchers say across most higher BMI categories, increased use of assisted reproduction can account for about a quarter of the increased rate of twin births as BMI increases.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of British Columbia, Canada

Funder: This study was supported by grant SKF-154852 from the Sick Kids Foundation. Mr Bone is supported by award 6456, a 4-year PhD fellowship, from the University of British Columbia. Dr Joseph is supported by an Investigator award from the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

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