A new study out of the University of North Carolina finds that anorexic women are on average more likely than non-anorexic women to have unplanned pregnancies. Half of the anorexic women in the study reported unplanned pregnancies, while only 20 percent of the non-anorexic ones did. As a result, the anorexic women had a greater instance of abortion with just under one quarter opting for termination with only one sixth of non-anorexic women choosing to do so. Anorexic women also tend to be almost four years younger than non-anorexic women when they give birth to their first child. The study’s author believes that the reason for the high unplanned pregnancy rate is due to the fact that many anorexic women often have irregular periods or none at all, thus they believe they cannot get pregnant. This is not true, as these women do still ovulate (the news reports do not mention if anorexic women also have higher rates of miscarriage given their compromised health and nutrition, although I would not be surprised). However, the author …
