Pregnancy for any woman is a special stage, foreshadowing a new branch of life, full of new joys, worries, worries, happiness. But this is a complete, enormous responsibility for the future – our own future and the future of the child. Especially if a woman has any health problems that may somehow affect the course of pregnancy, fetal development, and the baby’s health. Pregnancy and psoriasis – what kind of anxiety does the expectant mother have such a “combination”?
Pregnancy is characterized by many physiological changes in the body of the expectant mother. From the beginning to the very end of the gestational period, especially in the presence of a chronic disease, both the mother and the child become vulnerable to a variety of external and internal adverse factors. Chronic diseases of a woman, her use of certain medications, other factors can have a far from harmless effect on the development of the fetus. The course of pregnancy in women with one form or another of psoriasis can be complicated by pathological changes caused by the disease, and by the means used to treat it.
Direct risks
There is some relationship between some autoimmune, inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis, with the risks of miscarriages, premature births and low birth weight. This fact is due to the inclusion of cells of the immune system in the pathological development of the disease, as well as the stimulation of the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, hormone-like proteins that provide intercellular interactions. A large number of these substances causes endothelial dysfunction, which leads through the induction of platelet aggregation, activation of blood coagulation processes and intermittent vasospasms to placental and systemic vasculopathies.
The combination “ pregnancy – psoriasis ” for many women can mean the presence of frequent stresses associated with chronic skin disease. Constant nervous tension can affect the psycho-emotional state of a woman, entails depression, alcohol abuse, smoking, rapid weight gain. These factors, of course, can affect the development of the fetus in the most unpredictable, but always negative way, provoke the development of various pathologies, diseases, malformations.
Indirect risks
Psoriasis is often accompanied by concomitant systemic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, diseases of the endocrine, cardiovascular and nervous systems, metabolic syndrome. Such conditions, as well as drugs used to stop them, cannot but affect the process of fetal development.
For example, arterial hypertension is directly related to miscarriage, risks of premature birth, placental insufficiency, low or too high birth weight of perinatal mortality. Drugs used to treat this condition can cause physical abnormalities and fetal malformations.
Pregnancy, psoriasis , plus diabetes mellitus – this is also the reason for the likely development of numerous diseases of the child, including congenital malformations, macrosomia of the fetus, postpartum hypoglycemia. Obesity, which pregnant women with psoriasis is often prone to, is associated with the likelihood of a high fetal weight, risks of premature birth, and a low Apgar score (assessment of the condition of the newborn).
In addition to the above factors, the use by the future mother of many medications for the treatment of psoriasis can lead to undesirable scenarios. Therefore, in order to avoid any complications, it is necessary to inform the dermatologist and the gynecologist conducting the pregnancy as soon as possible about their condition.
The magnitude of the effect of psoriasis on pregnancy and fetal development can be different. In order to reduce the risk of developing any negative consequences for herself and the unborn child, a woman should pay special attention to both the lifestyle as a whole and the methods of treating psoriasis and related diseases.