I know during pregnancy lots of hormonal and physiological changes occur to a woman’s body. Are there any diseases or ailments that are cured by pregnancy because of these changes?
It is a certain cure for virginity.
[anecdote]I know a woman whose (male) doctor suggested pregnancy as a cure for endometriosis. The woman was single with no immediate prospects… kind of an insenstive thing to say.[/anecdote]
It temporarily replaces your regularly-scheduled PMS & period with an otherwise unpredictable hormone-induced mood swings and swelling around the mid section for about 8 months. I’m not sure if thats a cure, but I’m just throwing it out there.
Actually, pregnancy is a possible result of being “cured” of virginity.
Actually my cousins, who both have endometriosis, have been told this by more than one gyno…unfortunately they have not been able to test this theory.
Infertility?
NattoGuy, don’t assume that because a woman is single with no prospects she can’t get pregnant. Remember, we can buy sperm.
When I was an exchange student to Mexico, I had a host-sister who suffered from it horribly, to the point that the doctor came to her house to give her injections of pain medication during her period. She and I were talking about the degree of pain she suffered. I repeated to her this ‘pregnancy can sometimes get rid of that’ thing, and she said well, maybe, but she wouldn’t get married for - she figured - about 10 years, so we did the math and saw how many more times she would have to suffer it. End of discussion. She wasn’t offended. Later, when she was screaming in pain, I took my nervousness to her parents and repeated the conversation. They assumed I’d told her to have an out-of-wedlock baby, and reported my horridness to the Rotary. For that, and other reasons, they had me removed from their home. 
The doctor actually suggested pregnancy??? I find that hard to believe. I can imagine the doctor saying something like “endometriosis tends to get better after pregnancy”, but not “I’d suggest that you get yourself pregnant to cure this.”
I don’t think pregnancy actually cures anything, but it has been known to give respite from everything from seasonal allergies (for me, the year of pregnancy plus the year following) to Graves Disease (thyroid condition) to some auto-immune diseases like arthritis. I suspect this is because the body is already damping down its ‘seek and destroy’ reaction to foreign bodies, in order to foster the survival of the fetus.
For me, the allergies always come back. But I’ve enjoyed the summers of respite very much.
!QUOTE=ggurl]NattoGuy, don’t assume that because a woman is single with no prospects she can’t get pregnant. Remember, we can buy sperm.
[/QUOTE]
Wow, really? I had no idea. That changes everything! I guess women with endometriosis should just pop over to the sperm bank to get knocked up with children they don’t want. Glad there’s an easy cure for endometriosis. Wonder why everyone doesn’t do it.
I have a mild, benign heart arrhythmia caused by hypersensitivity to caffeine. After I was diagnosed and put on a medication that would slow my heart down and stop the arrhythmia, I asked my doctor if I would have the arrhythmia forever or if there was something that might eventually get rid of it.
His answer was to either lose all my extra weight, or have a baby. Apparently when internal organs are squashed and rearranged by pregnancy, it puts/takes pressure on/off the heart, relieving the arrhythmia.
<hijack>
Got a source for that quote:
On doing some digging I found:
Did James Nicoll swipe that quote from someone else, or is your quote someone’s later mangling of what James Nicoll posted to Usenet in 1992? (Note: While James Nicoll claims an even earlier post with a similar quote, I have yet to be able to find it.)
Found the earlier version, from May, 1990:
http://groups.google.ie/groups?selm=1990May15.155309.8892%40watdragon.waterloo.edu&output=gplain
That’s one hell of a hijack!
Pregnancy decreases a woman’s risk of ovarian and breast cancer.
Personally I found that it cured my severe menstrual cramps. After my daughter was born I no longer had to spend four days each month reaching for the Motrin every three hours.
As chotti says, pregnancy “gives respite” to auto-immune diseases such as arthritis. Another such disease would be multiple sclerosis.
In dogs the exact opposite is true. In fact, a dog spayed before 6 months of age has an almost zero chance of mammary malignancies, and of course no chance of ovarian neoplasia.
Dogs with chronic vaginitis are sometimes cured by a pregnancy.
Yeah, but it won’t take you for long walks in the park the next day, will it? 
The Endometriosis thing is a real Catch-22. If you have it, you frequently cannot concieve. If you get pregnant, your body produces hormones that shrink the growths that may be stopping fertilization from taking place.
Nobody said the human body was perfect. My wife had endometriosis. It was determined to not be the cause of her infertility, but we stopped trying to concieve for about 6 months while she endured a course of treatment to dry it up and cease it for a while. She went completely and utterly bonkers during this course of treatment. It was most…difficult.
Then, just for yucks, we tried to concieve for another year, post-Endo treatment. Didn’t take of course, but she no longer had the severe symptoms she’d had, so that’s a good thing.
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