Scientists say they have discovered why some women have a particularly hard time with pregnancy, bringing them one step closer to a possible cure.
According to research, it has been found that the baby produces a hormone in the mother’s body that can cause a severe condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), or nausea, while exposure to the hormone GDF15 before pregnancy could have a role in the treatment of nausea.
Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly of Cambridge University said: “The more sensitive a mother is to this hormone, the worse she will feel during pregnancy.”
HG is thought to affect one to three in 100 pregnancies. This can endanger the life of the fetus, and many women require intravenous fluids in the hospital to prevent dehydration.
Doctors confirm that some pregnant women tend to experience nausea up to 50 times a day.
Previous studies suggested that nausea of pregnancy might be linked to GDF15, but the researchers said “a complete mechanistic understanding is lacking.”
The new study, published in the journal Nature and involving scientists from the University of Cambridge and researchers from Scotland, the US and Sri Lanka, found that the degree of nausea is related to the amount of the hormone produced in the womb and previous exposure to it.
They studied women at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge and found that women with a genetic variant that puts them at greater risk of HG had lower levels of the hormone, while women with the blood disease beta thalassemia, which causes very high levels of GDF15 before pregnancy, often had nausea or vomiting.
Professor Stephens says it is essential to prevent the hormone from accessing its “very specific receptors in the mother’s brain”.
Charlotte Howden, chief executive of Pregnancy Nausea Support, a charity which supports women with HG, said this type of health problem had been neglected for too long.
She said: “I’m very grateful for the dedication of the researchers because it’s a condition that’s really never been in the headlines. It wasn’t an area of research that people were really interested in. It was just morning sickness – why should we worry about it?”
2023-12-18 17:29:24
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