Pregorexia???

[~Aveta~]

i remember being pregnant with my twins as a public patient, and being handed off from one Dr to another, so it was "missed" that i was verging on toxaemic - everyone just assumed i was fat when i blew up at 32 weeks.

the result was i nearly died and my babies with me. while i was being berated by the midwife who saw me for 5 minutes a month for putting on too much weight, FFS!

i just looked back at the photos of me breastfeeding them at two weeks old, and i'm skinny with chestbones sticking out.

[thepixie]

Hmmmm. May need to collect my thoughts on this one, its something I have thought about a lot over the years. Its true that even being pregnant offers no respite from the eternal pressure to be thin. Sure the media doesn't cause anorexia necessarily, but surely it can't help that it promotes obsession with weight, diet, being thin as normal female behaviour, almost to the exclusion of all else.
As a pregnant woman I was badgered again and again to exercise.... how??? my legs and feet were so swollen that a short walk was agonising, I could swim (or float) but I was so exhausted that getting to the pool was a nightmare. I felt guilty for not exercising enough. After having the baby the pressure is on again to go immediately back to 'normal' ('normal' being thinner than is natural for most women). Don't get me wrong, I love my post pregnant body, but I actually fee that I"m going against what is socially acceptable. I have a little belly, and enormous BB's! LOL I think that after looking like a girl all my life I finally look like a woman. And I'm surprised to find I like it. But it could easily have gone the other way.
Anorexia and other eating disorders especially in pregnancy are desperately serious and I would love to see more done to protect girls and women, and treat people with these deadly disorders. As the mother of a baby girl and the sister of a very impressionable 12 year old, the media's obsession with skinny disturbs me profoundly. It may not be the cause but I'm pretty sure it doesn't help.

[C~Q]

I don't think someone without food issues would become "pregorexic" - I could be wrong but i'm assuming most of these women already had some kind of eating disorder. I think the most important thing is that women who are known to have had issues in the past are given the help and support they need incase it comes up during their pregnancies.

I'm pretty sure that most women, when confronted with the truth during their pregnancy, not judged and offered help, would accept it.

I was asked at my first appointment with DD1 (with DS it wasn't common knowledge) if I was still anorexic and of course I said no - who is going to say yes when just asked outright like that? Lucky for me as I put before it wasn't an issue with me during pregnancy but for others I would like to see more time and support offered - free councilling, information on "pregorexia" and things that can set it off/bring it back. Even consoltations with experienced ED therapists.

As Dragonfly mentioned, people need more time with their Dr's and they need to feel like they are listened to. I know for a fact that I wouldn't admit to random midwife #1 that I was still anorexic. I have been told the most awful and innapropriate things by medical staff who just aren't educated on how to deal with people with ed's. Stuff that can really set you back if you're not strong enough to brush it off.

ETA Ok - passing that soap box back to you now Leash!

[~Kaz~]

This is a really interesting thread. I saw a similar article in the paper today I think.

I think for me the biggest issue is that the glamourising of being pg but stick-thin, or of losing 22kg in the 8 weeks post-birth that gets portrayed in the media and mags as a positive thing means that pg women with a real ED illness might not be picked up or offered support because they are seen by everyone around them (possibly including medical professionals), as being the 'ideal'. Or if not the 'ideal' maybe still within a 'normal range' when they're not.

I also agree with previous posters that it is not all about the media. I have just turned 32. When I was 7-8 years old I decided my thighs were too fat and I refused to wear shorts. Where did that come from? I was a normal weight, quite slim really. It was later, in my teens and early 20's that I used the media - much like CombatQueen spoke about - to support my distorted thinking and body image.

These days, the pressure is there, if I let it take over my thinking. Weight has been an ongoing background issue for me this whole pg but I have tried, and hopefully succeeded in giving it a low profile. I refuse to worry about what are normal body changes (that is my mantra to myself when I start worrying about my weight gain). And the only mags I ever read now are when I'm at the hairdressers!

ETA - CQ: You posted while I was wording this and you said exactly what I was trying to re: need for expert help for these women.

[Indadhanu]

I think that every woman feels the emotional stress of pregnancy weight gain, be it self or peer/media induced, but unless a person already has an eating disorder I don't think 'pregorexia' (does anyone else find that kind of offensive?)... I dont thin a pregnancy related eating disorder would develop. In the majority, of course I'm sure there are exceptions. But most would FEEL the stress, and keep eating (LOL that what I did!). Thats just my own opinion, of course, and based on no medical fact.

I also made my history known at my first appointment. 2 and a bit years into weight-restored recovery from a 6-ish year battle with anorexia I felt very strong but didn't know how I would handle pregnancy. Like CQ, I was lucky in that I didn't have an issue while pregnant. Well I FELT it, but Jazz was always first in my mind, in a way it was easier to justify eating and putting on weight when its for someone else, I found pregnancy quite relieving... Anyway, what about the people who don't feel comfortable saying out loud that they have an eating disorder? Or answering a direct question like CQ said? Maybe information could be passed on to ALL woman... in the Bount bag...? A non-judgemental way to pass on what could be life-saving information for mother and baby. Maybe if woman get this information, it can be a way of letting them know that its ok to say something, its not something to be ashamed of, and help is available.

And I believe 100% that eating disorders would still be around if there was no media. The media might exacerbate an already developed eating disorder, or someone predisposed to having an eating disorder, but take away the media and I believe it would happen anyway. Oh I had a 'thinspiration' book (thanks to the pro-anorexia websites who gave me the idea), but I hated myself before I ever stared at an emaciated model.
And to be honest, I personally feel it's pretty demeaning, and detracts from the heartbreaking and exhausting battle going on INSIDE a person, to say that eating disorders can be CAUSED by skinny models and weight loss ads in the media.

JMO.

[C~Q]

'pregorexia' (does anyone else find that kind of offensive?)

Yeah, if i'm honest I do. But I understand that it's an easy "tag" that the media can use and if it publicises the problem then I don't mind it being used.

[Nai]

I tend to disagree that someone with no prior eating issues could develop a problem during pregnancy. Think about all the extra hormones and anxieties that crop up out of nowhere during this time eg. depression developing in women with no prior indicators etc. I think that the added stress and pressure on top of these changes could definitely cause someone to develop a problem, especially if they didn't have particularly high self esteem to begin with.

I know many people with eating disorders and some can pin point a specific comment or action that set them on their way eg. a boy calling them thunder thighs at high school so I would assume that someone may easily be set off during pregnancy by a firend/colleague/whoever saying something insensitive like "gee you are big for 12 weeks - hope you don't keep growing at that rate" which seems to be a fairly common occurrence from BB members reports.

Additionally I don't think it is just a food issue - as a PP said their friend was a gym junkie. So while someone may be eating all the right things if they are obsessively exercising it can have the same result. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of obsessive exercise as it does have a similar effect to some drugs.

I find the tag quite offensive and think that it is something that shouldn't be brushed off or something that could affect any women not only from an eating perspective but an exercise perspective. The addedd pressure post-birth to slim down rapidly is also an issue as it does affect the ability to breastfeed etc. So it's not just during pregnancythat the pressure is on but also once the baby is here.

[Toomanytoomany]

I find the tag quite offensive and think that it is something that shouldn't be brushed off or something that could affect any women not only from an eating perspective but an exercise perspective. The added pressure post-birth to slim down rapidly is also an issue as it does affect the ability to breastfeed etc. So it's not just during pregnancythat the pressure is on but also once the baby is here.

One might call it flippant, but those who suffer from severe body image issues during pregnancy might in turn find it flippant that others aren't taking it seriously because they aren't considering it a "true" eating disorder. The distress and lack of self esteem some women feel at their post natal bodies is very real.

Trivialising it *is* offensive, for sure - but giving a serious social phenomenon a name isn't in itself offensive, I don't think. (And technically speaking, "anorexia" without the "nervosa" on the end simply and literally means "lack of eating/appetite".)