Causes of morning sickness explained
Learn what causes morning sickness, or nausea, in pregnant women.
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Transcript
CHRISTINE COLIE: Nausea is something that at least half of pregnant women will complain of. So nausea will usually start between about five and six weeks. And it's usually at its worst around nine to 10 weeks. There's a lot of theories about what causes morning sickness. And it's probably multifactorial. And it's likely really related to increased hormone like estrogen.
But it's also related to progesterone because progesterone as a hormone causes a lot of changes in the GI tract. And so what you basically end up with is sort of a slowing of the motility of the GI tract, which obviously could contribute to nausea. If that whole system is slower, backed up, then you're going to have food staying in one place for longer periods of time, which is going to affect satiety and many other things.
But it's also related to progesterone because progesterone as a hormone causes a lot of changes in the GI tract. And so what you basically end up with is sort of a slowing of the motility of the GI tract, which obviously could contribute to nausea. If that whole system is slower, backed up, then you're going to have food staying in one place for longer periods of time, which is going to affect satiety and many other things.