Pregnancy nose has been doing the rounds on TikTok.
You know the videos, a mother will show an image of her nose before she got pregnant and then after often with a significant difference.
Though at first, it’s mind-boggling, when you consider all the changes your body goes through during pregnancy it’s not that surprising that your nose can swell.
Dr Shannon M. Clark, a professor in maternal-foetal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston decided to share an explanation to her TikTok account.
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“There’s typical physiological changes of pregnancy that occur in everyone, the first being nasal dilation, where you have dilation of the blood vessels of the body,” she said.
“I had it when I was pregnant with my twins. That’s why my nose wasn’t only swollen but it was more red.”
The doctor explained that the swelling is due to an increase in hormones during pregnancy, which causes basal dilation partially around areas of the body that contain mucus membranes.
Shannon also said additional reasons for the swelling are due to an increase in blood flow to help the growing pregnancy.
Though it can be uncomfortable to look in the mirror and not recognise yourself your nose should go back to normal six weeks postpartum.
Dr. Clark also warned that if a pregnant person is more than 20 weeks along and notices their face and hands beginning to swell, in addition to symptoms like blurred vision and headaches, they should notify their medical provider.
This could be a sign of a complicated condition called preeclampsia and would need proper care and monitoring.
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