A hormone secreted by the fetus is linked to the nausea and vomiting that many women suffer during pregnancyaccording to a study that opens a way to treat these discomforts.
Nausea and vomiting affect one in ten pregnancies and one in every 100 women has severe symptoms.
This discomfort called “hyperemesis gravidarum”HG) is the most common cause of hospitalization in women with pregnancies of less than three months.
A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge associated with academics from Scotland, the United States and Sri Lanka published a study Wednesday in the journal Nature that suggests that these discomforts are due to a hormone secreted by the fetus known as GDF15.
The researchers showed that nausea and vomiting in pregnant women depend on the amount of GDF15 produced by the fetus and placenta that reaches the mother’s bloodstream and the specific sensitivity that a woman has to this substance.
The study suggested that some women have a higher genetic risk of suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, since they have lower levels of this hormone in their blood when they are not pregnant.
The fetus growing in the womb “It produces a hormone at levels that the mother is not used to. The more sensitive she is to this hormone, the worse she will feel.”summarized Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, co-director of the Institute of Metabolic Sciences at the University of Cambridge, who is one of the authors of the study.
The University of Cambridge stated that understanding this mechanism opens a way to treat this discomfort.
Source: Gestion
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