Gestational Skin Disease
Gestational skin disease or pemphigoid gestationis is a rare skin rash that develops during pregnancy in only one out of 100,000 women, reports Skin Cosmos. At one time, doctors referred to gestational skin disease as gestational herpes, but later abandoned the name as the disorder is not caused by the herpes virus.
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Identification
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Gestational skin disease is characterized by the appearance of blisters on your skin. It usually develops around your belly button, initially as an itchy, minor rash, which progressively worsens and spreads to other parts of your body.
Time Frame
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Gestational skin disease can develop anytime during pregnancy, but is most common during the second and third trimesters. Often, symptoms of the condition fade, but in 75 to 80 percent of cases, the blisters return again around the time of delivery, according to the New Zealand Dermatological Society.
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Causes
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Gestational skin disease occurs when your immune system begins to attack your skin, making gestational pemphigoid an auto-immune disorder. Doctors believe that the increased levels of estrogen present during pregnancy trigger the immune system response, according to the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
Treatment
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In mild cases of gestational skin disease, corticosteroid creams and ointment combined with oral anthistamines are used to control the itching and blisters. For severe cases, high levels of oral corticosteroids are used.
Effects
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In approximately 5 to 10 percent of babies born to mothers with gestational skin disease, a blistering rash develops after birth, reports the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. The rash is only temporary and usually fades in about six weeks.
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