Weighty issue for women

By Sarah Schwager
A DANDENONG North woman lost weight and fell pregnant after participating in a program designed to help women with weight related infertility problems.
Debra Nillson attended the Big Girls’ Group, a program for women who suffer from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, a hormonal condition affecting reproductive health, which is often related to being overweight.
Mrs Nillson first started the program at the end of 2004.
“It’s not easy to lose weight,” she said.
“This program helps puts you in the right direction. It is not looking at just now but for the future.”
Mrs Nillson, 40, had tried to get pregnant for 11 years before she and husband Ray had Corey, now 3, through IVF.
But she said as a result of the condition polycystic ovarian syndrome, she developed diabetes through the pregnancy.
She said it was then that she heard about the Big Girls’ Group.
“If I’d known about it before I could have had help a lot earlier,” she said.
Mrs Nillson is now pregnant with her second child, a girl, due in June.
Dr Rachael Knight, Director of the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital said: “Many women do not realise that weight loss and lifestyle modification are really achievable with education and the support of a structured program”.
The Big Girls’ Group is a four-month lifestyle and weight management program designed to help women with weight related infertility or gynaecological problems achieve their individual goals.
Founded in 1997 at the Royal Women’s Hospital, and now running at The Women’s in Carlton and in Noble Park, the program involves twice-weekly sessions covering areas such as nutrition, lifestyle and exercise, stress management, fertility issues, polycystic ovarian issues, and gynaecological problems.