‘OUR GIRLS’ RISK BABY HEARTACHE
Army training infertility link
ARMY chiefs are worried brutal military training may leave thousands of woman soldiers unable to have kids.
Top brass have launched an urgent probe into whether gruelling routines are leaving servicewomen infertile.
Military doctors fear 16,000 of “Our Girls” could be affected after it was revealed one in four young women athletes struggle to get pregnant, according to research.
The Ministry of Defence could be sued for millions if recruits are knowingly put at risk, officials fear.
Colonel Tim Collins, who is against women in combat, said: “There will be ambulance-chasing lawyers knocking the door down.”
The former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, blasted the MoD as “grossly irresponsible”. ® Scientists and pregnancy experts from Army Headquarters in Andover, Hants, have launched a study into the problem. Fitness regimes can affect hormones and cause bodies to go into starvation mode.
Fertility doctor Karine Chung explained: “The brain figures it is not a good time to have a baby.”
Army research chief Squadron Leader Robert Gifford said: “If this phenomenon was shown to exist with UK military training, this would be of concern.”
US tennis player Gigi Fernández suffered seven heartbreaking failed fertility treatments. She spoke out after doctors said her athletic career had ruined her pregnancy chances yet did go on to eventually have twins in 2008.