5 Changes Pregnancy Hormones Do To Your Body
Posted by Editor on Sep 29th, 2016 in Pregnancy and Health | 0 comments
Once you get pregnant, your body undergoes minor and major changes, which can affect you both physically and emotionally. To lessen the negative impact of hormonally induced changes, educate yourself about what to expect during the pregnancy.
- Your breast becomes bigger.
There’s no surprise on this one. Hormones fuel the increase of breast size to prepare the body for breastfeeding. Enlargement of breast takes place anytime during pregnancy, and the further you are in your pregnancy, the larger your breasts will become. Expect to go up a bra size or two, as well as breast leakage of the colostrum, the liquid generated by the breast prior to milk.
- Your hair becomes thicker—and then fall out post-partum.
Thanks to pregnancy hormones, you’ll have fuller locks that would make any women jealous. That is because pregnancy hormones prolong the growing phase of the hair, preventing fall outs at their regular rate. However, three months after giving birth, the body’s hormone levels return to normal. Your hair sheds rapidly, which lasts up to a year, to balance out hyper hair growth in the past months. To get a clear picture, your hair loses an average of 100 strands a day, but during post-partum you lose 300 strands a day.
- You’ll have terrible mood swings.
It may sound cliché, but it’s normal to experience mood swings due to high levels of hormones. At times you may feel ecstatic, but there are also times when you feel extremely low. However, if you’re having trouble feeling happy or you’re experiencing extreme sadness or constantly crying, which affects your appetite and sleep, seek out professional help and get tested for depression.
- You’ll experience pimples and break-outs again.
A boost in androgen will expectedly give you break-outs, which you probably have never experienced before. If you are bothered by pimples and acne that doesn’t seem to go away, have yourself checked by a dermatologist and discuss about safe skin treatments since acne-fighting staples like glycolic and salicylic acids are not recommended for pregnant women.
- Your feet may increase in size.
The hormone relaxin, from the name itself, relaxes the ligaments in your pelvis area to prepare the body for delivery, but it also affects other ligaments including your feet. Due to the relaxation of ligaments, the arch of your foot falls a little lower, spreading out the foot and causing it to become larger. This is why women usually go up a shoe size when pregnant.
Hormones are powerful chemicals that regulate the different aspects of the body. When these hormones get pumped up in higher levels during pregnancy, it can make unusual things happen to you. And when it starts to feel like it’s too much to handle, just remember that you are growing an entire human inside you; that should be enough reason to embrace the changes you are experiencing.
