Before Don Imus...the Too Fat Polka

Long before their was Don Imus their was Arthur Godfrey who hosted radio and television talk shows in the 1940s and 1950s. Long before there was political correctness, Godfrey had a smash hit record, called the Too Fat Polka. This song had a famous lyric which went "I don't want her you can have her, she's too fat for me". Well apparently physicians in Scotland are fans of Godfrey's. They have recommended that fat women be turned away from IVF clinics until they lose weight:

A leading group of Scottish doctors have recently claimed that Obese women should be automatically barred for NHS fertility treatments until they lose weight. According to the Scottish Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a woman with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30 should be placed on a waiting list until she has dieted to an agreed weight.

Beth Heller, holistic fertility expert and director of Pulling Down The Moon, a Chicago based fertility treatment center, agrees that overweight women who lose weight are going to have a better chance at conception. "There is a ton of research which supports the fact," she says.

However, everyone knows that losing the weight isn't easy. As controversial as this debate is, it highlights the need for fertility specific weight loss programs (Like Pulling Down The Moon and Fertility Centers of Illinois' Feeding your Fertility Program) that can help women lose weight while making food choices specifically supportive of conception.

In addition, there are other holistic fertility treatments and community support groups that help women channel their motivation of having a baby into getting healthy enough to carry one. Beth Heller further claims that overweight and IVF is a problem that is just going to get bigger. "The National Institute of Health cites overweight as a major reason why the fastest growing group of women experiencing infertility is those under the age of 25," she says. For further information visit www.pullingdownthemoon.com

-Art Caplan