Women who have Anorexia Nervosa and other eating disorders and who have irregular periods or no periods tend to think that they cannot get pregnant. However, now a new Norwegian study has found that actually Anorexic women are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies and induced abortions than other women without serious eating disorders.
According to Cynthia M. Bulik, PhD, the study’s lead author and director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program, women mistakenly believe that the absence or irregularity of periods will prevent a pregnancy from occurring, when in fact eating disorders are no kind of contraceptive.
The risk of getting pregnant remains even when periods are irregular or absent.
For this reason it is recommended by the study authors that women and girls with eating disorders should be counseled in this connection, to explain clearly the facts related to conception and sexuality.
The study also found that when it came to anorexic women, the average age of delivery was 26 years whereas with other women without eating disorders the average age of delivery was nearly 30 years of age.
50% anorexic women reported unplanned pregnancies and nearly 25% of anorexics admitted to having had induced abortions in the past.
