Risk of pre-eclampsia 'needs to be highlighted'

Pre-eclampsia is a condition that occurs during pregnancy, or immediately after the delivery of a baby, and though it affects one in 14 expectant mothers, its consequences are not very widely known.

However, a new study has revealed that women who contract pre-eclampsia during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from reduced thyroid activity.

The study was conducted by the Nord-Trondelag Health Study in Norway and published online by the British Medical Journal, with a total of 66,140 of adults participating.

According to the results, women who had experienced pre-eclampsia in their first pregnancy had a greater probability of having serum thyroid stimulating hormone concentrations than those who did not develop the condition while expecting for the first time.

Sarah Montagu, a registered midwife and administrative secretary for the Association for Radical Midwives, told health cover holders that the case illustrates the need for the condition and its repercussions to be highlighted.

She suggested medics should merely be more aware of these findings and look out for the symptoms, rather than have routine thyroid screening needing to be pushed more.

"You have got to maintain that balance between the 'worried well' and insisting that everybody ought to get screened for numerous of conditions. While the increase in risk found in this study is significant, it is not massive," Ms Montagu said.

The expert told health insurance customers that further studies on the subject would hopefully find out why pre-eclampsia exists and what can be done to prevent its development.

"Maybe it is the feeling that people are more focused in the treatment, or perhaps researchers see it as an auto-immune problem, and therefore it's not amenable to understand what is behind it," Ms Montagu opined.

By Louise Jones

Find out about our Health Insurance Plans. 

Adfero Ltd provides live and tailored breaking industry news for Chartis Direct. All industry news is prepared by Adfero Ltd and as such does not represent the views or opinions of Chartis Direct a trading name of UNAT Direct Insurance Management Limited.

© Adfero Ltd 2008