purpose

In a disturbing trend that has swept through certain social circles, some women are resorting to a shocking method to achieve the coveted “perfect” body. Pregnancy, once a sacred journey toward motherhood, is being manipulated for vanity—used to gain weight in all the “right” places before being terminated after five months. This exposé by GODFREY GEORGE uncovers the chilling lengths to which some go for the sake of appearance, delving into the pressures of beauty, societal obsession with body image, and the haunting consequences of this dark, open secret

Silence. Longer silence, followed by shock. Dr Sina Ajidahun, a physician, looked utterly thunderstruck.

“You mean young ladies would get pregnant and abort the pregnancy just so they can put on weight? This is madness!” he blurted out in dismay.

Promising our correspondent that he would conduct his own findings, Saturday PUNCH embarked on a deeper investigation to uncover the truth behind this shocking claim.

After hours of scouring microblogging sites, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, several leads began to surface.

These led our correspondent to a quiet town in Delta State, Ukwuani, where many respondents confirmed that the trend was indeed rampant.

“This is no news at all. As far back as 2009, when I was in SS2, I heard of this method for gaining weight. We even had a clique in every class set, which would help you with all sorts of tricks on your weight gain journey,” shared a slightly slender woman who gave her name only as Ada.

“Please, don’t capture me in your camera,” she begged, guiding our correspondent, who had traveled down to her hometown on this knowledge-seeking mission. “People know me here. If word gets out, I may be in trouble,” she added, nervously waving at an older woman frying garri nearby.

The sun hung low in the hazy sky, casting a warm golden hue over the town’s sparse streets, each corner craving a touch of industrialisation.

Before long, Ego, another local, led our correspondent to the home of a man named Chiedu, her cousin, who would help further this fact-finding mission.

Without any prompting, Chiedu immediately began, “This news na old news now. Even boyfriends get their babes pregnant so that their breasts will develop, and then they’ll remove it (pregnancy). I’ll take you to a woman who will tell you everything.”

After several minutes of waiting for transportation, Chiedu offered to drive our correspondent on a ‘ladies’ bike’ to the nearby settlement of Obiaruku, where they were to meet the woman he referred to as Iron Lady.

“She’ll explain this thing to you well. She’s a retired nurse,” he added, as the bike sputtered along the dusty roads.

When they arrived, Iron Lady looked frail, her skin pale. She sat as though she had used the last of her strength just to remain upright.

“Our girls have been doing it. It is not new, but the truth is that many have gone down that path. I am a retired nurse from the Delta State Ministry of Health. I served here in Obiaruku for years before I was transferred.

“I first heard of this around 2006 —that girls would intentionally get pregnant if they were ‘too slim,’ and when they noticed they had started adding weight, they would terminate the pregnancy.

“Abortion comes with its own complications, but one of the ‘side effects’ of abortion is that it can sometimes cause women to gain weight. However, I must stress that this doesn’t work for everyone, and it’s mostly unsafe in Nigeria because, to some extent, it’s illegal,” she added, her voice trailing off.

The sun had begun to set, and the crickets emerged, chirping the night’s song. Chiedu suggested we set out for another location, where Ego had mentioned a woman who lost her child to this dangerous practice was willing to speak.

It was nearing 8pm, and the streets were growing emptier and quieter, except for a few children playing with fire and the faint sound of a church service echoing from afar.

We soon arrived at the house, but the woman (whose name is withheld) seemed unaware of our visit.

“She (Ego) told you people to come here and ask me questions about Prisca, who died over six years ago?” she asked in an Igbo dialect, which only Chiedu could understand. After much pleading, the woman, who said she was trying to move on, asked us to return the next day after she had spoken to her husband.

Later, our correspondent learned from Ego that the woman was a single mother who had lost her husband years ago. It was clear that she didn’t want to revisit the tragedy of Prisca.

Still, Ego explained that Prisca had gone through the weight-gain process, getting pregnant by a youth corper named Israel, who, according to Ego, had told Prisca she was too slim to be his girlfriend.

“The boy confessed in front of the entire community back then. It’s common knowledge. I don’t know why Mama Prisca refused to talk.

“Prisca was around 19 or 20 years old when it happened. She bled to death because the abortion was carried out by quacks,” Ego shared, her voice heavy with sorrow.

A medical doctor practising in Asaba, who requested anonymity, confirmed that the practice was widespread in the area.

“From Warri to Sapele, Benin to Port Harcourt, and other parts of the South-South zone where my job has taken me, we’ve heard such stories in whispers. We’ve treated several complications after multiple abortions.

“There’s an obsession with the new body that these ladies achieve, so they’re willing to endure the painful process repeatedly to maintain it,” the internal medicine physician told Saturday PUNCH.

“But it’s sheer foolishness because it doesn’t work for everyone—it’s like fetching water with a basket. I can’t even understand why women would subject themselves to such risks,” he added with a heavy sigh.

At the lobby of the Port Harcourt International Airport, as our correspondent prepared to depart for Lagos, more leads emerged on X, where several medical professionals were willing to share with our reporter real-life accounts of women who lost their lives due to this risky weight-gain procedure.

Scrolling through several posts as far back as 2019, Saturday PUNCH realised the rumours had lingered.

It has been a quieter story, whispered in the private spaces shared between women—a story so unspoken, yet so widely known, it lingers in the shadows like a haunting melody.

This is a story of bodies—of weight, of curves, of the delicate dance between vanity and vulnerability. In a world where a woman’s worth can often be measured by the contours of her silhouette, where every inch gained or lost is scrutinised like the strokes of an artist’s brush on canvas, some women find themselves on an unexpected, perilous journey.

In a world where beauty is often a currency, the burden of being invisible weighs heavily on some women. And so, some turn to the unthinkable, the unspeakable—they turn to life itself.

Pregnancy, that sacred act of creation, that miracle woven into the fabric of human existence, is now wielded with strange intent. She conceives, fully aware that the child will never be born.

For months, she nurtures this life, allowing her body to swell, soften, and curve in all the right places. It is as though she is sculpting herself anew, molding her flesh to fit the ideal her society has carved into stone.

But the end to this story is not one of cradling newborns and sweet lullabies.

At three, four, or five months, when her body has gained what it sought, she brings a sudden end to the life inside her.

The pregnancy is terminated—not in some cold, clinical manner, but with a sense of calculation. It is a plan executed with chilling precision.

Yet, behind the practicality of her actions, there lies sadness, longing, and hunger—not just for food or flesh, but for validation.

Her newly curvaceous figure is met with approval. Eyes now linger where once they passed over her. She feels desired, and for a fleeting moment, this satisfies something deep within her.

The hanger girls

An X user, Mazi Nathan, tweeted in surprise that some people on Twitter claimed not to know about girls who got pregnant just to gain weight and abort once they felt they had achieved their goal.

He wrote, “It was rampant from around 2008 to 2015. If you grew up in Warri or attended DSPG (Delta State Polytechnic), then this shouldn’t be news to you. We used to call them the ‘hanger girls’.”

In an attempt to validate this claim, our correspondent sought out individuals who either attended Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi Ukwu, or grew up in Warri during this time. Several were found.

One of them was Vieze (surname withheld), now an accountant at a consulting firm in Lagos. He shared with our correspondent that his first girlfriend had done exactly that.

“It was the reason we broke up. She told me to get her pregnant because she wanted to add weight. I couldn’t understand the connection. It wasn’t until she explained that I realized she was completely out of her mind,” he said.

Unknown to him at the time, the young woman was already pregnant and was merely seeking a soft landing. Several months after their breakup, she returned to tell him that she had been pregnant with his child and had aborted the pregnancy.

“She looked really plump. Her breasts looked different. I had no reason to doubt her,” he admitted. “I reported her to her elder sister, who was my classmate in secondary school, but that was the last I ever heard of it.”

Another X user, @buchee_, had an experience similar to Vieze’s. On April 10, 2024, he tweeted, “I dated a girl who told me to get her pregnant. When I asked her why, she said she wanted to gain weight in the right places and then she’ll abort it in the third month. I ran.”

Lending her voice to the conversation, Anuu Baloch wrote, “Many of you have heard about this many times—even from women. If you check the comments, many women are admitting to knowing about it. Some women are doing harmful things just to add weight. The idea is to get pregnant, put on weight, and abort.”

In agreement, another user, Dave Plena, tweeting as @DaveDave606, shared on September 30, 2024, “I heard of this from my sister for the first time. I told her that a cousin of ours was gaining serious weight, and this was someone who had always been very skinny. She then gave me the gist of what these young girls do to themselves nowadays.”

Adeola Aregbesola, tweeting as @olah_in_hebrew, wrote, “Well, I know of two coursemates who tried this in my first year as an undergraduate. While getting pregnant might’ve been a mistake, they gave other ladies the impression that abortion came with certain ‘benefits.’ So the get-pregnant-and-abort-it-to-gain-weight trend became a thing.”

Regal Reawakening NG, tweeting as @WallsstreetJade on September 30, added, “I’ve known about this for at least 14 years. I had ‘runs girls’ neighbors who have done this. They do this when their breasts start sagging. I know someone who has done it more than once. One of them almost died from the abortion.”

Banging body madness

There has been a growing craze in recent times for women to sculpt their bodies into a specific ideal, leading many to resort to extreme and often dangerous measures.

From undergoing deadly body reconstruction surgeries, mostly performed by quacks, to consuming dubious ointments and concoctions purported to increase hips, buttocks, and breasts overnight, the lengths some women go to achieve the ‘ideal body’ are staggering.

Yet, perhaps the most bizarre of these methods is the pregnancy-for-weight-gain strategy.

In Lagos, our correspondent found several leads. A female gynecologist at a federal medical centre, who requested anonymity, invited our correspondent for a conversation one Wednesday afternoon.

Over the phone, when she initially agreed to help Saturday PUNCH uncover this growing menace, she remarked, “You came late to the party. Ladies do a lot of things to their bodies just to look sexy for men. I can’t say much on the phone. Just come over.”

Behind the closed doors of her office, she revealed confidential files to our correspondent, documenting cases of patients who had suffered severe complications from multiple abortions.

Among the most heartbreaking was the case of a 19-year-old girl from Badagry, who was schooling in Benin Republic and had undergone four abortions just to look plump.

“What she told us when her parents brought her was that she had only had four abortions, but from our assessment, it was likely more. She said it was peer pressure, explaining that everyone was doing it, and her boyfriend forced her into it if she didn’t want the relationship to end,” the physician revealed.

After several attempts to stop the bleeding failed, and with sepsis already setting in, her family rushed her to another private clinic, where she eventually died.

“The tragic part was, yes, her breasts were fuller, but by the time she left this hospital, she had become very thin and ‘unappealing’ to the eyes,” the doctor added with a mix of sadness and frustration.

Another distressing case was that of a single mother who nearly lost her life after undergoing two abortions in five months.

Her elder sister, noticing that something was wrong, brought her to the hospital in time to save her life. When asked why she had done it, the young woman explained that her friends had tried it, and it had worked for them, and they convinced her that the effects would become permanent after the third attempt.

“That’s three abortions in one year! That is absolute insanity!” exclaimed the doctor, her voice thick with anger as she described the dangers of undertaking such a risky and dangerous procedure just to gain weight.

Gestational weight gain

According to a health journal Nursing Open, in its article published on June 17, 2020, titled “Weight Gain During Pregnancy and Its Associated Factors: A Path Analysis” by Mahrock Dolatian et al., weight gain during pregnancy is considered a significant indicator for predicting morbidity and mortality in both infants and mothers.

The longitudinal study aimed to determine the contributing factors for weight gain during pregnancy.

The study sampled 734 women using a multistage cluster sampling method.

Data was gathered through various means, including demographic and midwifery questionnaires, along with assessments of economic and social status, psychological factors, domestic violence, perceived social support, and food insecurity.

Among the participants, 28.7 percent experienced insufficient weight gain, 49.6 percent had adequate weight gain, and 21.7 percent recorded excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

The analysis revealed that several factors influenced weight gain, including maternal age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), prenatal care, household size, food insecurity, stress, anxiety, and even pregnancy-specific stress and violence.

The conclusion was clear: considering the effects of inappropriate weight gain on pregnancy outcomes, factors such as nutrition, stress, and depression need to be assessed during prenatal care.

Another health repository, Everyday Health, noted that gestational weight gain and BMI are key determinants of pregnancy outcomes, maternal health, and neonatal health.

The guidelines for prenatal care stress the significance of appropriate weight gain during pregnancy. Healthcare providers are urged to evaluate maternal weight at each prenatal visit and monitor progress to ensure weight gain goals are met.

Based on BMI, the recommended weight gain during pregnancy for lean women (BMI less than 18.5) is 13–18 kg; for women with a BMI between 18.5–24.9, it is 11–16 kg. For overweight women (BMI 25–29.9), 7–11 kg is recommended, while for obese women (BMI over 30), 5–9 kg is the suggested weight gain.

Despite the importance of weight gain during pregnancy, aesthetics is rarely factored into these medical guidelines.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists further emphasised that the amount of weight gained during pregnancy can affect both the immediate and long-term health of the mother and child.

The article noted the shifting demographics of pregnant women, with more women being overweight or obese at the time of conception.

Yet, these medical findings prompt a perplexing question: why would a woman deliberately get pregnant and later abort the pregnancy solely to gain weight, when there is no guarantee that weight gain will even occur?

A registered nurse from Ilorin, Kwara State, Sodiq Tajudeen, speaking on the subject, confirmed that pregnancy could indeed cause weight gain.

“It’s called ‘pregnancy-induced weight gain,’ and it occurs due to various factors like the growth of the placenta and fetus,” he noted.

According to him, the placenta and fetus require energy and nutrients for development, and this translates into fat storage. As the fetus develops, the uterus expands, contributing to an overall increase in body weight.

Tajudeen further explained that hormonal changes during pregnancy can lead to increased insulin resistance, promoting fat accumulation.

These hormonal shifts—especially in estrogen, progesterone, and human placental lactogen—cause fat to be stored around organs and under the skin, leading to visible weight gain.

Additionally, Tajudeen identified increased blood volume, up to 40 to 50 percent, and vascular permeability, which may cause fluid retention and contribute to weight gain. Hormonal fluctuations, such as changes in leptin levels, were also cited as contributing factors.

However, Tajudeen cautioned women against using pregnancy as a method for gaining weight, emphasising the health risks involved.

“Pregnancies alter a woman’s entire body system. Besides weight gain, the body is never the same again. Why go through all that stress just to gain weight when you can simply adjust your lifestyle, eat more, and take supplements to achieve the same result?” he queried.

Yes, I did it!

On social media, particularly TikTok, a disturbing trend has emerged where young ladies openly admit to getting pregnant and then aborting the pregnancy, all in the name of gaining weight so their birthday photos would “pop.”

This “pregnancy-for-weight-gain” challenge has gained traction among some users, turning a personal and medical experience into a dangerous fad.

Saturday PUNCH viewed several videos of minors on the app, proudly stating how they became plump after a few months of pregnancy.

Intrigued by the trend, our reporter engaged some of these users to delve deeper into their motivations.

One TikTok user, who requested to be identified by her nickname PwittyCutesy, confessed she hadn’t personally undergone the procedure but knew someone who had.

“I’m in Ogun State right now, and it’s not a new thing. It’s just that I don’t have the mind to do it. There’s nothing there. Everybody is doing it,” she stated with nonchalance.

When asked if she could connect Saturday PUNCH with her friend to share her experience, she refused, citing her desire not to “betray her friend’s trust.”

However, another young lady, who had posted a video openly claiming to have done the procedure, was more defiant.

“Yes, I was pregnant and I did it to add up (gain weight). Any problem?” she retorted. When our correspondent inquired further about her reasoning and whether her parents were aware, she immediately blocked our correspondent.

Unfazed, our reporter attempted to contact her through another account, but was met with the same response—blocked again. To add to the strangeness, the TikTok user then posted screenshots of their conversation on her account, only to delete the post shortly after and deactivate it, likely out of fear of backlash or exposure.

Abortion in Nigeria

In Nigeria, abortion is only legal when performed to save a woman’s life. Still, abortions are common, and mostly unsafe because they are done clandestinely by unskilled providers.

Unsafe abortion is a major contributor to the country’s high levels of maternal death, ill health and disability, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, and little improvement has occurred in recent years, per World Health Organisation Fact Sheet 2019.

However, in spite of the country’s highly restrictive abortion law, an estimated 1.25 million induced abortions occurred in 2012 alone. That number almost doubled as of 2019.

The estimated abortion rate was 33 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 49 in 2012.

Nationally, one in seven pregnancies (14 per cent) ended in induced abortion in 2012.

Complications of unsafe abortion range from pain and bleeding to more serious conditions, including sepsis (systemic infection), pelvic infections and injury from instruments—and even death, doctors have warned.

About 40 per cent of women undergoing abortion experience complications serious enough to require medical treatment.

Pregnancy-for-weight-gain too risky

A senior registrar at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Dr Chinyere Atansi, stated that pregnancy-for-weight-gain would not work for everyone.

“During pregnancy, there are a lot of hormones involved which could make a person begin to add weight as the body is trying to get ready to accommodate the new baby.

“But, there are people who lose weight when they get pregnant so one might not be able to tell the hormones how they should act. So, yes, it is possible to gain weight when one is pregnant. Most people do gain weight when they are pregnant,” she stated.

She added that when a lady keeps aborting her pregnancies, there was a tendency to disrupt the reproductive system, depending on where it is done, when it is done.

“A constant and continuous abortion can cause a problem to the cervix and make it difficult for one to get pregnant in future, or lead to more miscarriages when they want to indeed try out to be pregnant in the future,” she added.

The Chief Executive Officer, EEK Fertility Herbal, Dr Ekinyi Destiny-Ochete, warned that women who constantly abort children may risk infertility in the future.

“When you are done tampering with the natural order, you will now spend millions trying to repair it. I warn ladies who are intending to do it not to try it,” she said.

Ajidahun, a medical practitioner and co-founder, Priv Health, said, “Pregnancy-for-weight-gain doesn’t make any sense. There are a thousand and one ways to gain weight without going through all that stress of getting pregnant. And with abortion comes a lot of complications and getting it done over and over again can be quite unfair on the woman in question and her body.”

How to gain weight naturally – Nutritionist

A registered nutritionist and dietician based in Lagos, Mr Emmanuel Udoh, says there are better ways to gain weight healthily without endangering life.

According to him, weight gain is a result of energy imbalance, which is the same as losing weight.

“When you consume more calories than your body needs, you gain weight and when you consume fewer calories than your body needs, you lose the weight you already have. Medically, it advised you to stay within the limit of your ideal body weight to stay healthy.

“Eat in small but frequent portions. You can spread your meal to five to six times/day, including snacks. Eat lots of protein-rich foods like meats, fish, eggs, milk, and legumes. Consume more complex carbohydrates like Potatoes, yam, whole grains, fruits, vegetables,” he advised.

Societal pressure, mental illness to blame – Psychologists

A senior psychologist based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Dr Usen Essien, said the decision to undergo a pregnancy, knowing that the intention was not to carry the child to term but to gain weight, likely reflected a struggle with self-image and confidence.

“It may also indicate a skewed understanding of self-worth being tied primarily to physical appearance rather than one’s intrinsic qualities, abilities, or personality.

“This can stem from a culture that disproportionately values physical attractiveness, perpetuated by societal norms and, often, reinforced by men who set these expectations.

“For the women involved, this might manifest as feelings of inadequacy, self-objectification, and desperation to meet the standards expected of them, sometimes at the cost of their mental and physical health,” he added.

Also speaking, a clinical psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Dr JohnBosco Chukwuorji, said pregnancy-for-weight-gain was risky, adding that such ladies might be suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

The postdoctoral research fellow at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Flint Michigan, USA, said, “Women who have body image dissatisfaction, a psychological issue that affects about two out every five women, may be more likely to engage in such a high risk behavior.

“Such people are not happy with their overall body appearance. There’s a constant pressure by society or the media for women to look a certain way. When these ideal body types become internalised, it leads to low self-esteem for women.

“Such individuals may go extra miles to ensure that they improve their physical appearance which may include gaining weight if they are slim.”