Pregnancy Dangers that are Relatively Unknown

There are two very dan­ger­ous symp­toms that can oc­cur in preg­nan­cy that are rel­a­tive­ly un­known or unspot­ted. These two dan­gers are known as preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion and Fibromyalgia.

Preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion goes by the name of ei­ther tox­emia or preeclamp­sia. This con­di­tion is more com­mon in younger women or women who are hav­ing a ba­by for the first time. The three char­ac­ter­is­tics re­lat­ing to preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion are blood pres­sure that is in ex­cess of 140 over 90, edema(swelling) and pro­tein that is present in the urine.

Eclamp­sia is a type of hy­per­ten­sion con­sid­ered se­vere. Preg­nant women who de­vel­op eclamp­sia usu­al­ly ex­pe­ri­ence seizures from the sever­i­ty of the con­di­tion. 1 in about 1,600 women who are preg­nant will ex­pe­ri­ence eclamp­sia and the con­di­tion usu­al­ly de­vel­ops the last months of the pregnancy.

The caus­es re­lat­ed to hy­per­ten­sion while preg­nant is still un­clear. There are how­ev­er, a few con­di­tions that in­crease the risks of de­vel­op­ing eclamp­sia. These will in­clude kid­ney dis­ease, di­a­betes and any pre-ex­ist­ing blood pres­sure is­sues. It has been said that there is a high­er lev­el of re­sis­tance in the cap­il­lar­ies and ar­ter­ies from pre-ex­ist­ing high blood pressure.
Re­strict­ed blood flow can oc­cur in var­i­ous or­gans of the preg­nant women such as the pla­cen­ta, brain, uterus, liv­er and kid­neys. This can lead to ad­di­tion­al prob­lems such as poor growth of the fe­tus and the like­li­hood of a ba­by that is still born.

When preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion is not treat­ed, se­vere con­di­tions can cause seizures, death of the preg­nant women or her fe­tus. In some cas­es of hy­per­ten­sion it will be­come nec­es­sary to de­liv­er the ba­by be­fore 37 weeks.

Com­mon symp­toms of hy­per­ten­sion in preg­nan­cy will in­clude the following:

-Pro­tein that is picked up in urine testings

-In­crease in blood pressure

-Nau­sea

-Ede­ma

-Vom­it­ing

-Rapid weight gain

-Blurred vi­sion

-Pain in the up­per abdomen

-Changes of the way the kid­neys or liv­er function

In­creased blood pres­sure is usu­al­ly the key to the di­ag­no­sis. Ad­di­tion­al symp­toms will aid in es­tab­lish­ing a pos­i­tive di­ag­no­sis. Cer­tain tests are tak­en when test­ing for hy­per­ten­sion which will in­clude urine test­ing, eye ex­am­i­na­tions, as­sess­ment of swelling, and read­ings on blood pres­sure. Oth­er more in­volved test­ings will in­clude tests on blood clot­ting and the func­tion of the liv­er and kidneys.

Once preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion is es­tab­lished, the physi­cian will de­ter­mine the type of treat­ment suit­able for preg­nan­cy. The treat­ment will be con­sid­ered from in­for­ma­tion such as over­all health, med­ical his­to­ry, the preg­nan­cy, and the sever­i­ty of the hypertension.

The goal in treat­ing preg­nan­cy hy­per­ten­sion is to pre­vent the con­di­tion from pro­gress­ing fur­ther. Treat­ments will in­clude: bed rest, hos­pi­tal­iza­tion, fe­tal and mag­ne­sium sul­phate mon­i­tor­ing. In ad­di­tion a ce­sare­an de­liv­ery will most like­ly be ad­vis­able for the birth.

Ear­ly di­ag­no­sis and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the con­di­tion in preg­nan­cy can min­i­mize or pre­vent com­pli­ca­tions. Ed­u­ca­tion is nec­es­sary in or­der for preg­nant women to rec­og­nize the signs and symp­toms to look out for.

Fi­bromyal­gia dur­ing Pregnancy

Fi­bromyal­gia is a dis­or­der of a se­ri­ous na­ture that is man­i­fest­ed by in­tense and deep mus­cle pain that is re­cidi­vat­ing, stiff­ness, gen­er­al fa­tigue, anx­i­ety , de­pres­sion, sleep dis­tur­bances, and a in­crease in sen­si­tiv­i­ty to stim­uli. To date the risk fac­tors as well as the caus­es are still unknown.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, there is no cure for the dis­or­der and the types of treat­ments used are on­ly par­tial­ly ef­fec­tive in slow­ing the pro­gres­sion of this dis­ease. The dis­ease is very dif­fi­cult to di­ag­nose es­pe­cial­ly in pa­tients who have spe­cial con­di­tions such as past or ex­ist­ing neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal dis­eases or in a women who is pregnant.

In re­cent in­ves­ti­ga­tions that are med­ical­ly based there have been facts re­veal­ing that fi­bromyal­gia has been very of­ten over­looked when the pa­tient is preg­nant. The re­search fur­ther re­vealed that symp­toms re­lat­ing to fi­bromyal­gia ex­pe­ri­enced in preg­nant women were of­ten mis­di­ag­nosed with man­i­fes­ta­tions re­lat­ing to the pregnancy.

Symp­toms such as psy­cho­log­i­cal stress, fa­tigue a d in­tense pain are what gen­er­al­ly point to the pres­ence of fi­bromyal­gia. When oc­cur­ring in a preg­nan­cy lead many doc­tors to be­lieve the symp­toms are re­lat­ed to the preg­nan­cy in­stead of in­di­ca­tors to the disorder.
For this rea­son doc­tors now fo­cus on es­tab­lish­ing re­li­able cri­te­ria and pro­mote the ac­cu­rate dis­tin­guish­ing signs be­tween fi­bromyal­gia symp­toms and preg­nan­cy man­i­fes­ta­tions. Once fi­bromyal­gia is di­ag­nosed in a preg­nant pa­tient, the doc­tors will work at a re­duc­tion of the neg­a­tive im­pacts of the dis­ease in the preg­nan­cy stages.

Med­ical stud­ies clear­ly in­di­cate that fi­bromyal­gia is ex­treme­ly dif­fi­cult to de­tect in women who are preg­nant. It has been said that the de­ter­min­ing fac­tors are re­lat­ed to com­par­ing a healthy preg­nant women and a women who has de­vel­oped fi­bromyal­gia while preg­nant. Oth­er sources re­lat­ing to di­ag­nos­ing the dis­ease would be to ver­i­fy the in­di­vid­u­als med­ical history.

Stud­ies that in­volved par­tic­i­pants who were all preg­nant with­out and with fi­bromyal­gia, ages 29 up to 31, who all were in the last stages of preg­nan­cy. All the par­tic­i­pants had no com­pli­ca­tions in abor­tions and births as well as the ab­sence of any types of chron­ic ill­ness­es be­sides for the fibromyalgia. 

All the par­tic­i­pants once ob­served and test­ed fell in the ranges of good health. The study re­vealed that signs re­lat­ing to fi­bromyal­gia could def­i­nite­ly be dis­tin­guished op­posed to preg­nan­cy manifestations.

The par­tic­i­pants that had fi­bromyal­gia ex­pe­ri­enced pain that was ex­ac­er­bat­ed and per­ceived in all ar­eas of the body. These par­tic­i­pants ex­pe­ri­enced ex­haus­tion and even men­tal con­fu­sion at times. These symp­toms are def­i­nite­ly more pro­nounced and se­vere than nor­mal preg­nan­cy ailments.

It may still be dif­fi­cult to ac­cu­rate­ly de­tect fi­bromyal­gia with­in a time­ly fash­ion in preg­nant women. How­ev­er, the task is cer­tain­ly not im­pos­si­ble. Med­ical sci­en­tists are cur­rent­ly re­search­ing and ini­ti­at­ing new­er stud­ies, which aim to un­cov­er ef­fec­tive and re­li­able tech­niques to di­ag­nose fi­bromyal­gia in preg­nan­cy. This can lead to faster and more pos­i­tive ways to treat this se­ri­ous con­di­tion as soon as the symp­toms arise.

Preg­nan­cy is a sen­si­tive time that needs to be treat­ed with cau­tion and pick­ing up the signs of se­ri­ous threats or dis­eases in the ear­ly stages is vi­tal for the health of the grow­ing fe­tus and the mother.Treatment plans will be de­signed to suit the preg­nan­cy and aid re­lief from more se­vere symptoms.