Hormones, including natural estrogen, are essential chemicals in a woman’s body that regulate different processes. When pregnant, a woman’s body undergoes various hormonal changes. It’s normal to experience physical and emotional changes during pregnancy or menopause. The sex hormones, including natural estrogen, can affect the body tissues in different ways. Birth control pills, also known as oral contraceptives, can help regulate these hormone levels.
Poor oral hygiene can make dental plaque to accumulates overtime, mostly along the gum lines. The bacteria in the plaque produces acids that makes the gums more sensitive and susceptible to bleeding and disease. It’s very common for pregnant women to have red, tender and swollen gums which bleeds when they floss or brush their teeth. Red, swollen and tender gums can be a sign of pregnancy gingivitis.
Gingivitis is an early stage of gum disease that can be prevented with proper dental care. If you have bacterial plaque buildup, you will be at a higher risk of experiencing frequent gums bleeding during pregnancy. This can potentially lead to tooth loss and affect the health of your teeth.
Well, in this article am not here to talk about the causes of bleeding gums. Nutritional deficiency, gingivitis and poor oral care can all make your gums to bleed. I explain more on these on my previous post. You can check it out here – causes of bleeding gums in pregnancy.
Pregnancy Hormones And Bleeding Gums
During pregnancy, hormonal changes can lead to health complications such as gingivitis, which causes bleeding gums and inflammation. These variations in hormones can negatively impact oral health, making gums tender and easily inflamed. It is important to visit the dentist regularly, especially if you are taking birth control pills, to maintain healthy teeth and gums.
Variation in certain hormones suppresses some of your immune cells that doesn’t support fetus development. This hormonal variations can affect your immune system negatively. Making you more susceptible to gums bleeding, disease and infections.
However, almost all pregnant women pass through similar hormonal changes during their pregnancy. It’s important that you visit your dentist regularly for dental check-ups. Taking proper extra care of your teeth and gums during pregnancy, can be helpful in preventing frequent occurrence of gums bleeding.
Hormones that causes bleeding gums in pregnancy
1. Progesterone: progesterone is an essential pregnancy hormone. It’s produced by the ovaries and by the placenta during pregnancy. Progesterone is made from cholesterol, cholesterol is first converted to pregnenolone then finally to progesterone. This hormone initiates thickening of the uterine lining, giving way for implantation of embryo.
Progesterone suppresses some of the maternal immune cells, making it possible for implantation of a fertilized egg. During pregnancy the level of progesterone in the female body is always very high. High levels of progesterone causes some of your internal structures to increase in size. It also cause laxity, tenderness or loosening of body tissues, ligaments and joints at any part of the body. (1)
2. Estrogen: estrogen plays an important role in the development of the female sexual characteristics. It sees to the enlargement of the breast and also the development of the milk duct. During pregnancy, some amount of cholesterol is collected at the placenta. This cholesterol is used up for the production of steroid hormones including estrogen.
During pregnancy, the level of estrogen in a woman’s body rapidly increases, particularly during the trimester. Estrogen is crucial for providing support to the lining of the uterus and promoting blood circulation in the uterus and other parts of the body, including the gum tissue.
However, due to the rapid increase of your estrogen level during pregnancy, you are more likely to experience pregnancy gingivitis, nausea, and the development of a pregnancy tumor.
Final Thoughts
Many pregnant women are unaware of the link between their oral health and overall health during pregnancy. Just like I said earlier, hormones are chemical messengers that communicates with every cell in the body. During pregnancy their is high increase in the level of sex hormones. This hormones can affect your gum tissues in so many ways. (2)
Apart from the two hormones that I mentioned in this article. There are other hormone that causes bleeding gums in pregnancy. These hormones brings some changes to the body, making the gum tissues more easily inflamed.
The best to do is to stick to daily flossing and brushing at least twice per day. A regular professional oral cleaning and examinations is also recommended during pregnancy.
Richard Smith is a Registered Nutritionist and also a Health Speaker. Richard Smith graduated from The City University of New York. You can learn more about him by Visiting His LinkedIn Page or Follow him on Twitter.
Note: All links leading to our recommended products are all verified to be the products’ official website, so as to ensure you get the original product at no additional cost to you.
One comment