Pregnancy is an exciting time for expectant moms, but it can also come with health challenges. For about 8% of moms-to-be, those challenges include gallstones, hardened deposits of digestive juices that form inside your gallbladder.
Gallstones can cause a variety of symptoms, including severe belly pain, nausea, and vomiting. While gallstones can be treated with minimally invasive surgery, if you’re pregnant, having surgery can feel scary and overwhelming.
At Desert West Surgery, our team has extensive experience helping women manage gallstones during pregnancy. We use state-of-the-art techniques to relieve symptoms while protecting you and your growing baby. If you’re experiencing gallbladder issues during pregnancy, here’s how we can help.
Before delving into treatment options, it’s important to understand how gallstones happen and why they often form during pregnancy.
Your liver produces a digestive juice called bile to help break down the foods you eat — particularly fatty foods. It stores excess bile in your gallbladder, and in turn, your gallbladder releases bile as needed into your small intestine via tiny openings called bile ducts.
Bile contains substances like cholesterol and bilirubin. Gallstones form when these substances build up, usually due to an imbalance in those substances or for other reasons, like obesity, diabetes, liver disease, or a problem with the way your gallbladder is working. Over time, some substances can “clump” together, forming hard gallstones.
Very small gallstones may not cause any symptoms at all. But sometimes, a stone gets “stuck” in a duct or prevents the gallbladder from working as it should. That’s when you wind up with symptoms like belly pain, nausea, and even jaundice, a yellowing of your skin or eyes.
Pregnancy creates an optimal environment for gallstone formation, beginning with the occurring hormone changes.
During pregnancy, you produce more progesterone, which can cause the gallbladder to empty more slowly. Delayed emptying increases the likelihood of cholesterol or bilirubin clumping together and forming stones.
Cholesterol levels also tend to be elevated during pregnancy, further increasing the risk that stones will form. Dietary changes during pregnancy may increase your cholesterol levels, too.
Suppose your gallstones aren’t causing symptoms or are very mild. In that case, we may recommend “watchful waiting,” monitoring your symptoms and helping you adopt lifestyle changes (like avoiding fatty foods or eating smaller meals more frequently) to reduce discomfort. Some women find mild gallstone symptoms resolve after giving birth once their hormone levels return to normal.
Over-the-counter medicines, like acetaminophen, may help you find relief from more painful symptoms. However, it’s important not to take any medication — even over-the-counter products — without speaking to your obstetrician first since some medications can cause complications for you or your developing baby.
Finally, if your pain is severe, persistent, or interfering with your quality of life, or if there’s a risk of infection, surgery to remove your gallbladder may be the best choice. Data show gallbladder disease is one of the most common reasons for surgery during pregnancy.
Gallbladder surgery (cholecystectomy) can usually be performed using minimally invasive techniques and very tiny incisions. While it’s ideal to wait until after delivery to have a cholecystectomy, it can be performed later in pregnancy when necessary.
Gallstones during pregnancy can be concerning, but fortunately, medical intervention and lifestyle changes can help. If you have gallbladder problems, our team will work closely with your obstetrician before recommending a treatment focused on helping you and your baby stay healthy.
To learn more about gallstone management during pregnancy and how our team can help, call Desert West Surgery and schedule a visit at the Las Vegas location nearest you.
