Silhouette of pregnant woman.
A new social media trend has parents showing off photos of an unexpected change before and after giving birth: pregnancy nose.
TikTok users have recently used the the hashtag#PregnancyNoseto try and understand how their noses became noticeably larger during and after pregnancy compared to before.
Many celebrities have also opened up about their own experiences having pregnancy nose, including formerLove & Hip Hop: New Yorkstar Cyn Santana, when she wasexpecting her first childwith Joe Budden, andChrissy Teigen, when she wasexpecting her second childwithJohn Legend.
While pregnancy comes with a lot of physical changes, here’s what to know about pregnancy nose, which is actually very common.
Pregnancy nose is a real symptom that can cause swelling or puffiness of the nose due to increased blood flow.
“The underlying reason is because of the hormones that are increased in pregnancy and those hormones cause dilation in vessels, which can result in more blood flow going to certain areas — and that’s because we need it for the uterus,” Dr. Christine Greves, a Florida-based OB-GYN, toldToday. “It’s not necessarily selective. So, some areas of our body that have mucous membranes do experience increased flow and your nose is one of them.”
Dr. Shannon M. Clark, a professor in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, explained toNBC Newsthat the symptom is very common.
“There’s typical physiological changes of pregnancy that occur in everyone, the first being basal dilation, where you have dilation of the blood vessels of the body,” she said, noting she also experienced pregnancy nose. “I had it when I was pregnant with my twins. That’s why my nose wasn’t only swollen but it was more red.”
Clark told the outlet that while pregnancy nose isn’t harmful, pregnant people should contact their medical providers if they’re experiencing swelling of the face and hands after 20 weeks, in addition to blurred vision and headaches, as it could be signs of preeclampsia.
It typically develops suddenly in women who previously had normal blood pressure after the 20-week pregnancy mark, Mayo Clinic says. Besides sudden weight gain and swelling, symptoms may include severe headaches, shortness of breath, nausea, upper abdominal pain, blurred vision, impaired liver and kidney function and decreased urine output.
Experts also warn of believing everything they see on social media as a lot of pregnancy misinformation can be spread.
“Social media can be very helpful when taken with a grain of salt,” Clark said.
source: people.com
