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What's The Cause Of Morning Sickness? Scientists May Have An Answer - Cord Blood

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What’s The Cause Of Morning Sickness? Scientists May Have An Answer

Pregnant woman with doctor

A new discovery has been made by a team of researchers led by Marlena Fejzo, an obstetrics researcher. They believe they’ve found the cause of morning sickness, a common symptom experienced by pregnant women, particularly in the first trimester. In some cases (about 2% or 1 in 50 pregnancies), morning sickness can become severe, a condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG).

The team has been studying a hormone called GDF15. This hormone was first noticed in high levels in the blood of pregnant women back in 2000. Since then, studies have suggested that there might be a genetic component to severe morning sickness, involving two genes, one of which is responsible for producing GDF15.

Fejzo and her team have found that GDF15 levels are higher in women with hyperemesis than in those without. They’ve also discovered that most of the GDF15 in healthy pregnancies comes from the fetus and placenta, but the mother might produce more of this hormone when experiencing severe morning sickness.

Interestingly, they found that women with certain genetic variants linked to HG had lower levels of GDF15 when they weren’t pregnant. Data from a separate study showed that women who had higher levels of GDF15 before pregnancy had a lower risk of developing hyperemesis. It seems that having higher levels of GDF15 before pregnancy might offer some protection against severe morning sickness, possibly by making women less sensitive to the hormone’s effects.

The researchers suggest that the severity of morning sickness might be due to the interaction between the GDF15 produced by the fetus and the mother’s sensitivity to this hormone, which could be influenced by her exposure to the hormone before pregnancy.

While more research is needed, the team hopes that increasing GDF15 levels before pregnancy could help prevent HG, and decreasing them during pregnancy could help reduce nausea. However, any potential treatments would need to be safe, especially considering the potential risks of introducing new therapies during pregnancy.

This research is still in the preprint stage, meaning it hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet. But it’s a promising step towards understanding and potentially treating severe morning sickness.