14 DAY TRIAL // Women with anorexia nervosa are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies as well as induced abortions, than women who do not suffer from this severe eating disorder, concluded a new study carried out by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Norwegian researchers.
Cynthia M. Bulik, PhD, lead author of the study and director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program, and colleagues, gathered data from 62,060 women taking part in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study.
In this sample, there were 62 women who reported suffering from anorexia nervosa, and the researchers were stunned by the differences they found between healthy women and those with anorexia nervosa.
Anorexic women had an average age of 26.2 years at delivery, while the control group of women without any eating disorders started motherhood at 29.9 years.
Half of women with anorexia nervosa reported unwanted pregnancies, unlike 18.9% of healthy women, and 24.2% of anorexic women reported having induced abortions in the past, compared to 14.6%.
Dr Bulik said that these percentages might be caused by the fact that anorexic women are either having irregular periods, or not having them at all, so they think that they cannot become pregnant.
“Anorexia is not a good contraceptive,” said Dr Bulik.
”Just because you're not menstruating, or because you're menstruating irregularly, doesn't mean you're not at risk for becoming pregnant.”
She added that physicians and other health care providers must be aware of this as well, and doctors who treat women and especially teenage girls, “need to make sure that they have the conversation about sexuality and contraception as clearly with patients with anorexia as they do with all other girls and women.”
Also, health care providers who take care of pregnant women need to know if their patients have an eating disorder and probably the best way to make sure, is to start screening for eating disorders during prenatal visits, Dr Bulik suggests.
The study will be published in the November 2010 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
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