Hormone identified as cause of pregnancy morning sickness

Researchers have unlocked the reason why most women experience morning sickness during pregnancy, which can be so severe as to need time off from work or even lead to hospitalisation.

The team of scientists from the US, UK, Europe and Sri Lanka have identified the cause of morning sickness as a hormone called GDF15.

The study by the academics, published in the journal Nature, argues that the hormone, which is produced by the foetus, combined with the mother’s sensitivity to it, is the cause of the nausea and vomiting associated with morning sickness.

Around 80% of women experience such symptoms at some point during pregnancy, with 2% suffering from extreme morning sickness, or hyperemesis gravidarum, which can lead to hospitalisation.

It is also estimated that around 30% of pregnant women in paid employment will need time off work because of nausea and vomiting.

The latest study, however, suggests that being exposed to GDF15 before pregnancy could help to mitigate symptoms later on. The key appears to be a woman’s sensitivity to the hormone, which will determine the severity of her symptoms.

“We now know that women get sick during pregnancy when they are exposed to higher levels of the hormone GDF15 than they are used to,” said Dr Marlena Fejzo, a clinical assistant professor of population and public health sciences in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and the paper’s lead author.

Women who are more sensitive to the hormone get the sickest, agreed Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, co-director of the Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge, who led the collaboration. “Knowing this gives us a clue as to how we might prevent this from happening.”

Lowering GDF15 is one way potentially to address pregnancy sickness. Another is to expose women to GDF15 before pregnancy, to ‘prime’ or prepare them for elevated levels of the hormone once they become pregnant.

“This study provides strong evidence that one or both of those methods will be effective in preventing or treating HG,” said Dr Fejzo.

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