for fertility problems. Women with AN + BN were more likely to take over 6 months to conceive. All ED groups experienced negative feelings upon pregnancy discovery and remained so at 18 months with AN group.

While eating disorders are often associated with women, men also suffer from disordered eating and may experience reduced fertility as a result.

In fact, fertility problems are a common side effect of eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating or any other type of obsessive or compulsive eating pattern. Case in point: Some studies show that about one out of five women who seek treatment for infertility have suffered from an eating disorder.

That said, below are some helpful tips.

1. Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. One sign of a good and healthy relationship with food is allowing yourself unconditional permission to eat.
2. Eat when you’re hungry.
3. Practice mindful eating.
4. Welcome all foods in your diet.
5. Mind your plate.

What are unhealthy relationships with food? An unhealthy relationship with food includes eating when you’re not hungry, perhaps to deal with negative emotions. It also includes having food rules and restrictions or changing the way you eat to manage your weight.

Here are some signs of an unhealthy relationship:

1. Physical abuse: your partner pushes you, hits you or destroys your things.
2. Control: your partner tells you what to do, what to wear or who to hang out with.
3. Humiliation: your partner calls you names, puts you down or makes you feel bad in front of others.

“Toxic relationships are ones in which one party demands sex when their partner isn’t interested, and equally toxic is to withhold sex or to be in a sexless relationship—unless that’s an arrangement that’s what you both consensually want,” says Fleming.