Dr. Syed Nazim explains what skin changes can happen during pregnancy and how to deal with them without stress
So in pregnancy what happens to our skin and hair and nail. Let’s talk about skin first. So three things are there. The first important thing is it’s a physiological change that happens in pregnancy, on our skin. And the second is what happens to pre-existing skin conditions. And what are its consequences during pregnancy?
And third, what is specific in pregnancy? What kind of skin diseases or conditions do we expect in pregnancy where we need to get worried and we need to show a dermatologist. First, let’s talk about the physiological skin changes, which do happen in pregnancy. Now in physiological skin changes first, it’s that there’s an increased surge of melanin. So actually all those hormones with that, we discuss, it has an effect on melanocytes and melanin and MSA. These are all different hormones in our body. And normally, the skin starts tanning, especially in the face for the woman who expects.
Turning around her Arriola. It can expect tanning around her face like the axilla and underarms and growing areas. And one important condition almost 70 to 90% of women face is melasma colorism. It’s a butterfly rash, which happens the pigmentation around the cheeks and nose. And maybe about the eyebrows, which need to be taken care of with a specific medication we should not be taken in during this course. And most importantly, if you talk about protection, we have to be on physical sunscreen. Apart from that, the woman will notice a kind of a, a linear line coming from the pubis to the umbilical area. It’s a darkening, which is called Linea Alba.
So it’s a pigmentation line, which happens. And which is quite normal and which waves off as the pregnancy, like after the pregnancy, it’s normal the line. So, these two conditions are very, very common, which do happen apart from that some skin tumors like the tumor are not like you need to be scared of.
This is very benign tumor was benign ministered. Very, it’s not malignant. It’s not cancerous tumors. There are skin, some growths which happen during pregnancy, especially, you can notice that skin tags coming around the neck area or underarms and elsewhere on the body. You can notice these things do come and apart from that, these are some of the physiological changes.
Now you have equally the vascular changes which do happen because, during pregnancy, almost a woman bears weight more than normal in pregnancy, you can increase the weight it gets accumulated, approximately 11kgs, which is normal. So what happens? There’s compression on the veins down below the legs and women can have varicose veins that can be spider veins or some kind of angiomas, which are very benign vascular lesions over the skin and where you need not worry.
And after the pregnancy, they are going to go, and sometimes you can notice something and a Julius thing coming around the lips, which can happen. And where you can wait and watch, or it’s not something serious condition after pregnancy, they can, it can be removed to do some vascular legions. A woman can notice equally the edema and the swelling of our hands and puffiness around the face.
And she can notice puffiness and swelling around the feet and which again is normal it’s because of the vascular compression, which does happen in pregnancy. And these are certain physiological changes, which do happen in pregnancy.
