It's no wonder we have a hard time...

[HelenA]

I was watching sky tv today and happened across an old Montel show, I think it was about 2001 or something like that, but it intrigued me because it was about "strange medical phenomenoms". Well there are all kinds of weird and wonderful guests on there who had overcome some pretty strange things, and then he brings this woman on stage.

She starts out by mentioning her pregnancy etc... How she figured she had m/s until she had to get IV's and a PICC etc.. I got a little excited because...well lets face it, we'd all think the same thing, THAT'S HG!! I figured "Yipeee..some recognition" I even turned the tv up to hear it better. Of course when she finishes talking Montel asks her what it was, and she said HG (in the full term name).

Then Montel turns to the camera and says "For those who've never heard of it, that baiscally means that your body is actually allergic to being pregnant" And that was it! He then went on to ask about whether baby was ok, and then they brought the kid out and she was about 4 years old by then.

I was just a little miffed that they never researched it more, and just blew it off as an ALLERGY

Am I the only one who thinks that was a bit blazé? I mean with it being downplayed as an allergy, is it any wonder that we don't get taken seriously when we go to the dr's?

[mandy]

What an opportunity that was for publicity and recognition - so close and yet so far! People just don't seem that interested in us women struggling through pregnancy. Now if it were men struggling, this hg-thing would have probably been cured decades ago! And, Montel may have devoted a whole season to this topic!

(From a rather sexist and tired tonight) Mandy x

[caleighbelle47]

I'm glad I wasn't watching that, I probably would have thrown something at the tv.

It really is no wonder it's not taken seriously, most times it's mentioned as morning sickness and no one will ever take that seriously.

[jesspinky1]

Well, no wonder Montel never got back to me when I wrote to him. He already did a show!

[Susannah]

HG need more publicity. No one seems to know what it is. Then when I try to explain it seems people's eyes glaze over. Like they can't comprihend pregancy making someone so sick.

[Proudmama]

My problem is EVERYONE was that sick or much sicker . I just give up trying to explain.

I would have been so annoyed if I saw that show.

[-samanthakay-]

They had something there if they would have done a whole show on it I am sure people would have watched it. I know some days my family looks at me like I am a freakshow. I am sure if you did not understand you would think me nuts laying in the bath crying because my hubby wants me to take a bite of porkchops.
Makes me mad thats all he had to say about it. Shit thats like the bullshit line I give my 8 and 5 year old on my bad days. I tell them the baby is swiming around to much and its making me sick LOL. The 5 year old will pat my belly and tells the baby it should nap now so mommy don't puke again.

[sohbriekay]

Sorry, am distracting myself reading old posts here, and I just wanted to respond to this one from an allergy perspective.

I have anaphylactic allergies, and my son also has multiple anaphylactic allergies. I've watched him go gray and stop breathing and drown on dry land from his lungs filling up just from a single taste of a single food. I've gone into anaphylactic shock before because someone in the house started cooking something I'm allergic to. Quite a lot of people die every year from allergies... I know of a few myself, and I have some good friends who've come frighteningly close.

So frankly when my last awesome ob/gyn said, "Yep, it seems as if you're basically allergic to pregnancy," my response was THANK GOD! Someone finally gets how seriously ill I am right now! So maybe it isn't a downplaying of HG so much, as a more general downplaying of how life-threateningly dangerous allergies can be.

[Starfoot]

Wouldn't it be nice if our "allergies" to pg merely gave us the sniffles or teary eyes?

[Mikey&Bree'sMama(src)]

I've heard this "allergic to pregnancy" reasoning before...it's actually one of the theories they teach in Maternal-Infant nursing when they're "guessing" what might cause HG. The idea is that either the pregnant woman has an allergic reaction to tiny fragments of chorionic villi that enter her bloodstream, or she has a reaction to the "foreign" fetus itself.

As someone else who has severe, lifethreatening allergies (to bee stings), it seems to me that if HG were an allergic reaction, there would be a way to test for the allergy-causing substance so that they could prove (or disprove) this theory once and for all. And they do "scratch tests" to see what kinds of common allergens people react to--why can't they do a chorionic villi "scratch test" (or something like it) on women who are known to have HG pregnancies, to see if that's the cause?

Boo for Montel! He really could have dedicated a whole show to HG or at least to severe problems of pregnancy...like HG, pre-eclampsia, and the like.

[sohbriekay]

Wouldn't it be nice if our "allergies" to pg merely gave us the sniffles or teary eyes?

I wish! I'd never complain about anything ever again for as long as I lived.

As someone else who has severe, lifethreatening allergies (to bee stings), it seems to me that if HG were an allergic reaction, there would be a way to test for the allergy-causing substance so that they could prove (or disprove) this theory once and for all. And they do "scratch tests" to see what kinds of common allergens people react to--why can't they do a chorionic villi "scratch test" (or something like it) on women who are known to have HG pregnancies, to see if that's the cause?

I did try to get our allergist to add "spiders" to my son's last RAST test, because he kept eating them and having g.i reactions, and the allergist looked at me like I was crazy. "Let's just stop feeding him spiders, shall we?" Next time I'm going to ask if he can't add "pregnancy" to mine, just to see the look on his face.

[Starfoot]

" Next time I'm going to ask if he can't add "pregnancy" to mine, just to see the look on his face."