A leading nutritionist has announced that eating disorders, crash diets, and being over or underweight have damaged Irish women’s fertility, diminishing their chances of naturally having babies.

Crash diets have been proven to pose a long-term danger for Irish women who wish to have children in the future. 

"Nutrition deficiency can have a direct impact on fertility," nutritionist Elsa Jones said. "Being underweight can affect it just as much as being overweight."

She said that being underweight could affect a woman’s ovulation cycle, causing an-ovulation; this means that a woman won't ovulate during her menstrual cycle.  A woman who suffers from bulimia, anorexia or has unhealthy eating habits has an increased chance of having a miscarriage if she does become pregnant.
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"If someone has an eating disorder, it will affect the way they get and stay pregnant," Dr. David Walsh of the SIMS Fertility Clinic said.

He said that fertility specialists send their patients to a nutritionist before they begin the In Vitro Fertalization treatments to ensure that extreme dieting or any other habit is not causing fertility issues. Lifestyle and stress have been known to be factors in infertility as the pressure of having a child often preoccupies the couple, which impedes them from conceiving.

"I think more and more doctors and fertility specialists are beginning to see the impact of lifestyle factors on fertility," said Elsa Jones.

"A lot of times, people are jumping in very quickly into IVF without addressing the factors such as lifestyle, stress and diet."

“Big Brother” contestant Chantelle Houghton visited a gynecologist after she felt pain in her left ovary, and was warned by doctors that she will not be able to produce children without the use of In Vitro Fertilization, reported the Herald.

Doctors have credited her dependency on IVF to conceive, to her excessive dieting, eating disorders and weight fluctuation.

She has decided to speak out about it so that other woman can realize the damaging effects of living poor lifestyles. Among those women lie thousands of Irish women who have also put at risk their chances of one day becoming a mother because of crash diets and other unhealthy choices.

A safe and healthy diet along with daily exercise will help in both keeping a trim figure and maintaining the opportunity of one day becoming pregnant naturally and without any health risks.