New research tracing morning sickness to a particular hormone could be a breakthrough that eventually lightens a billion-dollar drag on the economy.
Just as the work day is starting, too many women have to cope with morning sickness as they juggle career and pregnancy. It’s estimated that up to 70% of women experience nausea and vomiting during the first trimester. The extreme version is a condition called “hyperemesis gravidarum,” or HG, which can affect a smaller number of women.
Now, a study says a pregnant woman’s sensitivity to a certain hormone produced by her unborn child is the reason behind nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
The University of Southern California and University of Cambridge authors said that pinpointing the cause of morning sickness will help identify potential treatments in the future.
That could be a win for women, and, indirectly, the economy.
“For people with HG, it’s a huge economic burden,” said author Marlena Fejzo, a clinical assistant professor of population and public health sciences at USC’s Center for Genetic Epidemiology at the Keck School of Medicine.
Fejzo is the paper’s first author and her two decades of work on the topic grew from her own experience with HG, which left her with over $200,000 in medical bills from treatments for the condition. “This is a big exciting time for me,” Fejzo said of the study’s findings.
It’s difficult to put a price on the potential impacts of curing or developing better treatments for morning sickness and HG, but Fejzo said the implications for household finances and the economy could be “huge.”
“I think this problem has been largely underestimated in how much it affects women,” she said.
The economic toll of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy was more than $1.7 billion in 2012, according to one 2013 study’s projections on the direct and indirect costs. The numbers were based on costs for drug treatment, hospitalizations and lost time for caregivers and workers. That was a “conservative” estimate, the authors acknowledged at the time.
Adjusting for inflation, that’s $2.2 billion in current dollars, according to an inflation calculator from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
The 2013 study found that women with normal levels of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy lost an average of 23 days of work, while their partner lost more than three days on average, Fejzo noted. That’s not even counting the potential for lost productivity when on the job, she said.
The economic stakes are more extreme for HG, Fejzo added. Job loss as a result of HG can be common for women and their partners.
Fejzo is now hoping to launch studies in the next year or so in order to study potential treatments, starting with patients who are experiencing HG.
The new study, which was published in the medical journal “Nature,” may pave the way for future treatments that improve quality of life for pregnant women at home and on the job. Meanwhile, there are new federal laws protecting pregnant women at work.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect in June after passage last December. Previous laws barred pregnancy-based discrimination and firing, but the latest law made it clear that employers need to accommodate pregnant women with commonsense measures. That includes providing closer parking spots to workplaces and schedule flexibility.
“A cure for morning sickness would be welcome news for many, but regardless, employers still must fulfill their legal obligations, including under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which guarantees workers a right to accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions,” said Dina Bakst, co-founder and co-president of A Better Balance, a legal advocacy organization that pressed for years to pass the law.
The organization has a free legal helpline where callers bring up the ways employers are holding their morning sickness against them, she noted.
People working the helpline have heard from pregnant workers “who have been punished because they’ve requested to modify their schedule and arrive at work 15 minutes later each morning for a few months,” Bakst said.
“This inhumane treatment is now illegal thanks to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act,” she added.
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