# Nausea during pregnancy. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764 "2007-11-16T21:39:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/1 "2007-11-16T21:39:12Z")
What is the actual, physical cause of nausea during pregnancy. Are there pregnant women who never experience the sickness. Can this nausea be the first sign of a pregnancy? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/2 "2007-11-16T22:14:42Z")
[QUOTE=Hazle Weatherfield] What is the actual, physical cause of nausea during pregnancy. Are there pregnant women who never experience the sickness. Can this nausea be the first sign of a pregnancy? Thanks! [/QUOTE] I believe it’s caused by elevated hormones in the body, specifically the[hCG hormone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chorionic_gonadotropin) which is only present during pregnancy and is what doctors and home pregancy tests check for when determiniing if someone is indeed knocked up. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/3 "2007-11-16T22:56:55Z")
[QUOTE=Hazle Weatherfield] Are there pregnant women who never experience the sickness. [/QUOTE] I am nine weeks pregnant, and I have had no nausea yet (fingers crossed). Last time I was pregnant, I had a little, but I only vomited once, and I’m pretty sure that one was due to bad food, not morning sickness. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/4 "2007-11-16T23:24:12Z")
I never had a minute of nausea during any part of my 3 pregnancies. Heartburn, yes, almost constantly, but no nausea. I don’t know the mechanism, but I’ve heard one theory that nausea in early pregnancy keep one from eating anything remotely “off.” If you stick to bland foods you’re less likely to ingest anything that’s harmful to the developing embryo or fetus. You don’t really need extra calories during that time, so just not eating much except bland foods would be safer. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/5 "2007-11-16T23:33:51Z")
The last I knew, no one was really sure what causes so-called “morning sickness”. Some books posit low blood sugar, others hormones, and some the ubiquitous health menace: stress. The good news is that, for most women, it goes away by four months or so (yeah, I know, that’s a long time to feel like urk). There are dozens of home remedies, so if you suffer from it, keep trying different things to find what works for you. It’s often one of the first symptoms women feel early in pregnancy. How sick you feel or don’t feel in one pregnancy has no bearing on subsequent pregnancies. If a woman experiences a lot of vomiting and./or starts losing weight because she feels so much nausea, it might be considered a more serious condition called _Hyperemesis gravidarum_; this is sometimes severe enough to require medication or IV fluids. Good resources for morning sickness information and treatment: > **[Morning Sickness](https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/pregnancy-health-wellness/morning-sickness-during-pregnancy/)** > > Morning sickness is often a first sign of pregnancy and is often experienced as nausea and vomiting. Learn how to cope with morning sickness. [http://health.discovery.com/centers/pregnancy/americanbaby/morningsickness.html](http://health.discovery.com/centers/pregnancy/americanbaby/morningsickness.html) > **[Morning sickness: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia](https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003119.htm)** > > Morning sickness is nausea and vomiting that can occur at any time of the day during pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/6 "2007-11-17T02:31:48Z")
To answer one question, I experienced no nausea at all during my first pregnancy. Not even one moment. So, it’s not universal. (The second two, I experienced some during the last trimester, but that was all.) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/7 "2007-11-17T02:44:14Z")
Old Husband’s Tale: The new baby is a foriegn presence in mom’s body. The best cure is oral sex. No? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/8 "2007-11-17T03:23:02Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] Old Husband’s Tale: The new baby is a foriegn presence in mom’s body. The best cure is oral sex. No? Peace, mangeorge [/QUOTE] Uh, sure, go ahead and try that…if you enjoy cleaning vomit off your scrotum… ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/9 "2007-11-17T03:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Uh, sure, go ahead and try that…if you enjoy cleaning vomit off your scrotum… [/QUOTE] Oh no, I’d be afraid to even bring such a thing up. But not because of the chance of vomit. I stayed with nice back rubs, and appreciated what lovin’ was offered. I did, though, say “hi” to the baby “up the tube”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/10 "2007-11-17T03:52:58Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] I did, though, say “hi” to the baby “up the tube”. 😃 [/QUOTE] That’s just creepy. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/11 "2007-11-17T04:03:10Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] That’s just creepy. [/QUOTE] 😃 She thought it was hilarious. It was early on, before she got (her word) “fat”. Creepy would have been an echo, or maybe an answer. “Hi, Daddy”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/12 "2007-11-17T12:43:22Z")
**WhyNot** - teensy correction. Hyperemesis gravidarum is, by definition, vomiting in pregnancy (in the absence of any other cause of vomiting, such as a UTI) severe enough to cause dehydration and ketonuria requiring intravenous fluids to correct it. If you don’t need IV fluids, you don’t have hyperemesis. Most of my hyperemesis patients vomit back everything they ingest, including water, for about 3 days prior to each hospital admission. At this point they are usually miserable, dry and really depressed. They literally cannot keep _anything_ down, sometimes not even saliva. Most are “frequent fliers”, in that we stabilise them with anti-emetics, IV fluids and sometimes steroids and then send them home, only for them to return to us within a few days. Hyperemesis, unlike ordinary morning sickness, can persist into the second and occasionally the third, trimester. In my experience there is sometimes a psychological element to hyperemesis, in that women with previous psychiatric problems, unstable relationships and unwanted pregnancies are disporportionately represented among hyperemesis patients. I’m not saying this is always the case, but sometimes being able to play the sick role and stay in the safety of the hospital environment may have its advantages for the patient. This is not to say that her symptoms aren’t real or that she is doing any of this on a conscious level. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nausea-during-pregnancy/426764/13 "2007-11-17T15:02:10Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] **WhyNot** - teensy correction. Hyperemesis gravidarum is, by definition, vomiting in pregnancy (in the absence of any other cause of vomiting, such as a UTI) severe enough to cause dehydration and ketonuria requiring intravenous fluids to correct it. If you don’t need IV fluids, you don’t have hyperemesis., [/quote] Thank you for the clarification. > [@](#): > > In my experience there is sometimes a psychological element to hyperemesis, in that women with previous psychiatric problems, unstable relationships and unwanted pregnancies are disporportionately represented among hyperemesis patients. I’m not saying this is always the case, but sometimes being able to play the sick role and stay in the safety of the hospital environment may have its advantages for the patient. This is not to say that her symptoms aren’t real or that she is doing any of this on a conscious level. That’s really interesting! Thanks again for sharing that.