Feeling intense itching in the hands during pregnancy can be a sign of gestational cholestasis, also known as intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, a disease in which the bile produced in the liver cannot be released in the intestine to facilitate digestion and ends up accumulating in the body.
This disease has no cure and its treatment is done to control the symptoms through the use of body creams to relieve itching, as the disease usually only improves after the baby is born.
Symptoms
The main symptom of gestational cholestasis is generalized itching throughout the body, which begins on the palms of the hands and on the soles of the feet, then spreads to the rest of the body. The itching arises mainly from the 6th month of pregnancy and worsens during the night, and in some cases skin rashes may also occur.
In addition, symptoms such as dark urine, yellowish white skin and part of the eye, nausea, lack of appetite and light or whitish stools may also appear.
Those women who are most likely to develop this disease are those with a family history of gestational cholestasis, who are pregnant with twins or who have had this problem in previous pregnancies.
Risks for the baby
Gestational cholestasis can affect pregnancy because it increases the risk of preterm birth or cause the baby to be born dead, so the doctor may recommend a caesarean section or have the birth induced shortly after 37 weeks of gestation. Know what happens when Labor is Induced.
Diagnosis and Treatment
The diagnosis of gestational cholestasis is made through the evaluation of the patient's clinical history and blood tests that evaluate the functioning of the liver.
Once diagnosed, the treatment is done only to control the symptoms of itching through body creams prescribed by the doctor, and you can also use some drugs to decrease the acidity of bile and vitamin K supplements to help prevent bleeding, as this vitamin passes to be little absorbed in the intestine.
In addition, it is necessary to retake blood tests every month to check the evolution of the disease, and repeat them until 3 months after delivery, to make sure that the problem has disappeared with the birth of the baby.
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