The hormone that the fetus produces can be the cause of the nausea and vomiting that many women experience during pregnancy. This is a major discovery by researchers that could pave the way for effective treatment.

According to the results of the study, recently published in the journal Nature, these conditions are caused by the hormone that the fetus produces, a protein known as GDF15, reports AFP.

Up to seven out of ten pregnancies are accompanied by nausea and vomiting, and in some women these symptoms can be severe. This is hyperemesis gravidarum and is the most frequent reason for hospitalization of women during the first three months of pregnancy.

Researchers looked at data from women who participated in several studies and found that the degree of nausea and vomiting a woman experiences during pregnancy is directly related to both the amount of GDF15 produced by the fetal part of the placenta and sent to her blood, and with the amount of GDF15. as its sensitivity to the action of this hormone.

In particular, the team found that some women have a much higher genetic risk of hyperemesis gravidarum, linked to lower levels of the hormone in blood and tissues outside of pregnancy.

Similarly, women with the inherited blood disorder beta-thalassemia, which allows them to naturally have very high levels of GDF15 before pregnancy, experience little or no nausea or vomiting.

“A child growing in the mother’s womb produces hormones at a level the mother is not used to. The more sensitive it is to this hormone, the more ill it will be,” summarized Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, co-director of the Institute of Metabolic Sciences of the Wellcome-Medical Research Council at the University of Cambridge, one of the authors of the study.

“Knowing that gives us a clue as to how we can prevent it,” he continued.

“My hope is that now that we understand the cause, we are closer to developing effective treatments,” said study co-author Dr. Marlena Feizo of the University of Southern California, whose team previously identified a genetic link between GDF15 and hyperemesis gravidarum.

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