A picture shared on my Instagram feed – or more precisely the caption – stopped me in my tracks

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A picture shared on my Instagram feed – or more precisely the caption – stopped me in my tracks.

It was Izzy Judd – wife of Harry Judd, former winner of Strictly and drummer with pop band McFly.Izzy, an author and social-media influencer, was dressed in a bikini and had her killer abs on display while clutching a baby.Her words, shared with her 300,000 followers, offered a glimpse of her struggle with disordered eating – a subject I’ve long been willing celebrity mothers to come clean about.At the time the picture was taken – in 2018, and after the birth of her second child, Kit – Izzy was battling an ‘unhealthy obsession with losing weight’.

She wrote: ‘I was undernourished, exercising obsessively, running on adrenaline and looking after two under two.’ A picture shared on my Instagram feed – or more precisely the caption – stopped me in my tracks.

It was social-media influencer – https://www.wired.com/search/?q=social-media%20influencer Izzy Judd, dressed in a bikini and had her killer abs on display while clutching a babyMost interesting was the disclosure that these behaviours impacted her fertility, resulting in three years without menstrual cycles, impacting her ability to conceive and leaving her with osteoporosis.
I recognised this predicament instantly.The Mail on Sunday warned of it last year, when experts accused super-skinny celebrity mothers, known for their extreme diet and exercise regime, of promoting ‘unrealistic examples of fertile bodies’ and failing to come clean about their fertility treatments.Doctors also warned of a lack of awareness among young women of the detrimental impact of these extreme lifestyles on fertility.

Fad dieting, and having little body fat, can affect the balance of sex hormones needed for regular menstrual cycles, including periods – and conception.But Izzy’s post also struck a chord with a personal battle. I’ve written previously about my history of anorexia, the deadliest eating disorder, which I experienced in my early 20s.My illness stemmed from an unhealthy obsession with diets promoted on Instagram, in an attempt to obtain the unattainable, toned physiques of fitness influencers.

But I never expected that six years after making a full physical recovery, my periods would still be missing. Thankfully, they returned at the beginning of this year.

But doctors I’ve seen say my reproductive hormones are still in disarray. It is likely that, when the time comes, I will struggle to conceive.Now experts say the problem is worse than ever, with few women aware of the potential long-term impact of fad dieting on fertility.’This is one of the most common situations I see,’ says Dr Lisa Webber, a consultant gynaecologist specialising in irregular periods at St Mary’s Hospital in London.’Anecdotally, the numbers are increasing.

A lot of women will have gynaecologists who don’t understand the problem and push them down the IVF route. Many believe their lifestyle is good for their reproductive health, and I have to tell them otherwise.’Dr Nicola Rinaldi, a hormone expert who runs a 6,000-user-strong Facebook community for women experiencing fertility problems resulting from dieting, adds: ‘I’ve had large numbers of women accessing our help over the past five years. At the time the picture was taken – in 2018, Adimin Results – https://letsfireurbossnow.com/adimin-review/ and after the birth of her second child, Kit – Izzy, wife of Harry Judd, former winner of Strictly and drummer with pop band McFly, was battling an ‘unhealthy obsession with losing weight”Under-eating and over-exercising can disrupt every phase of a woman’s monthly cycle and, depending on the phase, it is possible they won’t notice there’s a problem until they try to conceive.’With this in mind, I wondered if a few months of obsessive dieting was the tip of the iceberg for Izzy.

It turns out I was right.Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, she revealed details of her struggle with tyrannical eating disorders – including orthorexia, an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating – which she believes may be partly to blame for five years of on-and-off fertility struggles.