Obesity: A Hidden Health Condition That Could Affect the Future Generations of Men

According to a report by the World Obesity Federation’s 2023 atlas, the number of overweight or obese individuals across the globe is set to rise significantly.

The report forecasts that by 2035, over four billion individuals will be overweight or obese, surpassing the 50% mark of the world’s population.

It is expected that the rates of obesity will increase faster among children than adults, with predictions suggesting that childhood obesity levels could more than double from 2020 figures by 2035. According to the forecast, boys could experience a 100% rise to 208 million, while girls could experience a 125% increase to 175 million.

While an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, and genetic factors have been widely implicated in the growing prevalence of obesity, what about those individuals who follow a healthy diet, exercise regularly, yet still experience an upward trend in their weight?

A recent study published in Cell Reports Medicine has found that the sons of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hidden and serious health problem affecting millions of women, are three times more likely to become obese.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet suggest that these findings bring to light an unknown risk of passing PCOS-related health issues to future generations through the male lineage of a family.

PCOS, affecting 6% to 12% (equivalent to around 5 million) of US women of reproductive age, is a leading cause of female infertility, according to CDC. However, its impact goes far beyond that. This chronic health condition persists well beyond the childbearing years.

PCOS often renders women insulin resistant, meaning that while their bodies produce insulin, it cannot be effectively used, increasing their vulnerability to type 2 diabetes, obesity, and mental illness. Additionally, they often exhibit high levels of androgens (male hormones also found in females), which can inhibit ovulation and cause acne, irregular periods, thinning of scalp hair, and excess hair growth on the face and body.

The daughters of women with PCOS are five times more likely to develop the condition, whereas the effects of PCOS on sons remain unclear. However, research indicates that males born to women with PCOS are more prone to hormone and weight issues.

In the recently published study, researchers employed both registry data and mouse models to investigate the transmission of PCOS-like traits from mothers to sons. The study incorporated registry data of just over 460,000 sons born in Sweden between July 2006 and December 2015, of which approximately 9,000 were born to women with PCOS. The researchers subsequently identified obese children among the participants.

They found “that sons of women with PCOS have a threefold risk of obesity and of having high levels of “bad” cholesterol, which increases the risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes later in life,” points out lead author Elisabet Stener-Victorin.

The research team verified these results by conducting a study on mice. The male offspring of female mice that were fed a regular diet or a high-fat and sugar-rich diet during pregnancy and were exposed to high levels of dihydrotestosterone, a male sex hormone, to imitate pregnancies of both normal-weight individuals and obese women with PCOS were examined. These male mice were subsequently fed a standard diet and evaluated for fat distribution and metabolism in adulthood.

They saw “male mice had more fat tissue, larger fat cells, and a disordered basal metabolism, despite eating a healthy diet,” adds the lead author.

In order to explore the possibility of passing on physiological traits and reproductive function across multiple generations, the researchers mated the first-generation male mice with female mice that had not been exposed to either a diet high in fat and sugar or male sex hormones. This process was repeated in the second generation, leading up to the third generation which did not have any exposure to the mother’s condition.

Qiaolin Deng, an associate professor at the same department and one of the researchers involved in the study, explains that the experiments conducted demonstrate that obesity and heightened levels of male hormones in women during pregnancy may lead to lasting health complications in their male offspring. These complications may include impaired fat tissue function, metabolism, and reproductive capabilities, which can potentially affect subsequent generations.

The findings of the study are “important” as they show “the risk of passing health problems down through the male side of a family, highlight the risk of passing this kind of health problem, and they may help us in the future to find ways to identify, treat and prevent reproductive and metabolic diseases at an early stage,” concludes Elisabet Stener-Victorin.

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