Periconceptional influences on childhood cardiometabolic health

A body of observational evidence and animal experiments have linked maternal obesity before and during pregnancy to poorer cardiometabolic health in offspring, and altering the early embryo by means of assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment also affected offspring’s cardiometabolic health. Potentially, improving the in utero environment by optimizing maternal lifestyle and body mass index (BMI) may mitigate the negative effects of maternal obesity on children’s health. Currently, only human lifestyle interventions during pregnancy have been completed and were unable to induce lasting effects on childhood cardiometabolic health. Hence, there is an opportunity for interventions to optimize maternal lifestyle before conception. Additionally, there have been no previous randomized controlled trials that examined whether hormonal stimulation or in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures differently affect children’s health. To that end, the studies described in this thesis aimed to elucidate the effects of periconceptional influences on children’s cardiometabolic health, and experimentally assess whether a preconception lifestyle intervention or different fertility treatments may affect cardiometabolic health in the offspring.