The impact of pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity on the birth weight of offspring born from women with polycystic ovarian syndrome.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of our study is to explore whether polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has an independent impact on the neonatal birth weight (BW), and whether pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity plays a mediating role on the association between PCOS and neonatal BW.

METHODS

This nested case-control study included singletons born to mothers who were treated with ART at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated with Shandong University during the period from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2019. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match the following independent variables to minimize the influence of confounding factors: paternal body mass index (BMI), parental age, gender of offspring. The Generalized estimating equation (GEE) model was performed to compare the outcomes. The mediation model was used to evaluate the intermediary effect of pre-pregnancy BMI. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) logistic regression was used to analyze the non-linear associations between pre-pregnancy BMI and infants BW.

RESULTS

After PSM, 1678 and 6712 singletons were included in the PCOS group and the non-PCOS, respectively. After adjusting for confounders of offspring, parents, assisted reproductive technology (ART) and family socio-economic status, the PCOS group had higher BW Z-score, BW/ length (L), BW/L and ponder index, and had increased risk of macrosomia, BW > 4500 g and large for gestational age (LGA). When stratified by pre-pregnancy BMI, the PCOS with overweight/obesity group had higher BW, BW Z-score, BW/L, BW/L, ponder index, and to have increased risk of macrosomia, BW > 4500 g, LGA. However, there were no statistically significant differences in neonatal BW outcomes between the PCOS group without overweight/obesity and the control group. The mediating effect of pre-pregnancy BMI on infants' BW was significant.

CONCLUSIONS

It was overweight/obesity, along with abnormal glycolipid metabolism, rather than PCOS itself, that contributed to an abnormally increased BW in their offspring.