By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) -Women seeking in vitro fertilization might improve their odds of becoming pregnant if they lose weight, but the magnitude of any advantage wasn’t clear, in a new analysis of previous studies.

The benefit of weight loss was mainly seen in the few couples who ultimately achieved pregnancy without assistance, however.

While weight loss interventions appeared to improve the likelihood of spontaneous pregnancy – negating the need for IVF – it was not clear whether they improved the odds of IVF-induced pregnancy, according to the report by lead researcher Moscho Michalopoulou and colleagues at the University of Oxford in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Also unclear was whether weight loss improved the odds of a live birth.

Weight loss interventions studied include

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