Grant: Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)

Infertility affects approximately 10-15% of couples and is one of its modifiable risk factor is overweight. In Canada, 43% of women in their reproduction age are overweight or obese. Moreover, obesity increases the costs of fertility treatments and reduces its efficiency. In addition, obesity increases significantly the risks of many complications of pregnancy. Even a modest loss of 5-10% of body weight can restore ovulation and improve pregnancy rates. Our general objective is thus to design, implement and evaluate a transferable cost-effective program for lifestyle management of obesity in infertile women in the Canadian context. The program will be developed and its implementation closely monitored by our research group with our expert and decision-maker collaborators. The design and implementation phase will include a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of health professionals' and patients' satisfaction, perceptions and impact of the program on their life. In order to evaluate lifestyle benefits of this program and assess its impact on fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, and cost, 128 obese women (BMI >= 30 kg/m2), or overweight women with polycystic ovary syndrome (BMI >= 27 kg/m2), consulting at the CHUS fertility clinic will be randomized into 2 groups: the intervention group will participate to our program and will suspend fertility treatments for six months, while the control group will receive standard fertility treatments. The results obtained will also be compared to those of women with the same criteria who will consult in 3 tertiary IVF clinics (with access to IVF at the clinic) not offering a similar lifestyle management program. This project is very important as it will generate new knowledge about the implementation, impacts and costs of a new lifestyle management program in obese infertile women. Our results may therefore accelerate public financing of such programs integrated to fertility clinics in Quebec and Canada.