Pregorexia: The Pregnancy Eating Disorder

Pregnancy should be a beautiful, happy time in your life; but it can also trigger eating disorder habits, causing the experience to be overwhelming and dangerous for both baby and mom-to-be. 

Pregnancy is also an emotional experience that can lead to overly sensitive and vulnerable feelings about your body changing. 

You’re supposed to consume a few extra calories per meal while pregnant in order to help the growth of your baby. However, some women are terrified about the inevitable weight gain. Will you get stretch marks; will you be able to lose the weight; will you be able to get your body back?

Pregorexia is a term used to describe a pregnant woman’s obsession to be thin during pregnancy. She may try to achieve this by not eating enough, obsessively exercising, binging and purging or just binge eating.

Even though pregorexia is not recognized as a medical diagnosis, the amount of women who struggle with pregorexia is tremendous. In fact, according to the Eating Recovery Center, 30 percent of American women do not gain enough weight during pregnancy. 

It doesn’t help that the media is obsessed with celebrities who bounce back post-baby, or don’t look like they are pregnant at all. This puts added pressure on women to look thin during and immediately after giving birth. 

Body Image Expert, Claire Mysko, joins Pam Peeke, MD, and Michelle King Robinson to discuss what pregorexia is, as well as symptoms and treatments available to ensure that you’re gaining the right amount of weight during pregnancy.