Gender-specific aspects of obesity

There is increasing recognition of the role obesity and the metabolic syndrome play in the causes of chronic disease. Heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, hypertension and dyslipidaemia are the most important and most scrutinised of these co-morbidities, but there is no system in the body that escapes damage from the biochemical and physiological effects of obesity. The difference in body morphology and in particular fat distribution between the sexes leads to gender-specific differences in prevalence of chronic diseases, and unique problems for each sex including infertility, problems during pregnancy, polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometrial carcinoma in women, and prostate and testicular cancer in men.