Overweight men: clinical pregnancy after ART is decreased in IVF but not in ICSI cycles.

Purpose: To evaluate if elevated male body mass influences success after assisted reproductive technologies

Methods: Retrospective study of 290 cycles.

Results: Male body mass index greater than 25.0 kg/m² was associated with significantly lower clinical pregnancy (53.2% vs. 33.6%). Multivariable logistic regression indicated that the likelihood of clinical pregnancy was decreased if the male partner was overweight after in vitro fertilization but not after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (odds ratios: 0.21 [0.07-0.69] vs. 0.75 [0.38-1.49], respectively) after adjustment for number of embryos transferred, sperm concentration, female age and body mass.

Conclusion: In this cohort, overweight status of the male partner was independently associated with decreased likelihood of clinical pregnancy after in vitro fertilization but not after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. A detrimental impact of higher male body mass was observed after adjusting for sperm concentration, suggesting that intracytoplasmic sperm injection may overcome some obesity related impairment of sperm-egg interaction.