News | Dapagliflozin, a common type 2 diabetes drug, may offer a key advance for fertility in women with obesity

Dapagliflozin, a widely used treatment for type 2 diabetes, may offer new hope for improving fertility in women with obesity. In a mouse study, researchers from The University of Queensland’s School of Biomedical Sciences found that Dapagliflozin lowered blood glucose while significantly improving reproductive hormone levels and ovulatory function in female mice with obesity, suggesting similar potential in humans.

Glucose metabolism and fertility: an overlooked connection

Study leader Professor Chen Chen of The University of Queensland noted that women with obesity often have irregular periods, ovulatory dysfunction, and abnormal reproductive hormone levels, possibly due to disrupted energy metabolism.

“Many women with obesity also have type 2 diabetes or high blood glucose, and these metabolic problems can further disrupt the reproductive endocrine axis,” Professor Chen explained. “This study offers a new approach to restoring reproductive function through metabolic regulation.”

Encouraging results: weight loss, restored ovulation, and re-established reproductive cycles

During eight weeks of treatment, mice receiving Dapagliflozin showed the following significant changes:

Blood glucose returned to normal;

Body weight decreased significantly;

Reproductive cycles were re-established;

Reproductive hormones, including estrogen and luteinizing hormone, approached normal levels;

Ovulation resumed, and ovarian function approached normal levels.

By comparison, untreated mice with obesity still had severe ovulatory dysfunction and hormonal abnormalities at the end of the study.

“Dapagliflozin is an SGLT2 inhibitor widely used to treat diabetes,” Professor Chen added. “Its potential effects on the reproductive system have not been fully studied. This experiment shows its potential to improve female fertility.”

Research remains at an early stage; human clinical trials are still needed

Despite the encouraging results, Professor Chen emphasized that the findings remain at the animal-study stage and require substantial further research before clinical use.

“Our findings offer hope for patients who currently lack effective treatment options,” he said, “especially those with obesity-related hormonal disorders who have not responded to conventional fertility treatment.”

The team will next investigate the molecular mechanisms by which Dapagliflozin affects the female reproductive system to further assess its clinical potential.

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