Metabolism, Obesity, Thinness, and Reproduction

The physiology of reproduction is ruled by neuroendocrine signals that originate in many regions of the brain. Additionally, such signals are greatly modulated or affected by relevant signals derived from the periphery of our body. All such peripheral signals are concerned with specific sensorial and metabolic information that might positively or negatively modulate specific responses from the brain and from the affective neuroendocrine pathways of the endocrine glands. Such interconnections are at the basis of the modulation, which might block or restart reproductive functions by means of hypothalamus-pituitary control of ovarian function in humans either by body weight loss, as from anorexia nervosa, or by excessive body mass, as in obesity. The understanding of these mechanisms is of tremendous value to clinicians who face and resolve reproductive impairment.