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Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

itchy foot= OC?

2 replies

moulesfrites · 09/11/2010 03:33

I am 29 weeks and I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the loo (a nightly occurence)and noticed that I have an itch on the bottom of my foot. Now I have convinced myself that I have Obstetric Cholestasis. What are the next steps? Do I need to ring midwife or dr as a matter of urgency or could it wait a day or so? Would something like this show up on my 28 week bloods? Would appreciate any advice.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
duchesse · 09/11/2010 03:46

I think you need to stop panicking! You probably got itchy feet before being pregnant as well, didn't you?

I thought that OC tended to manifest as really severe itching on the upper arms? Itchy feet could be just due to extra weight on your feet. I seem to remember having the same thing on my left foot during my last pregnancy- a line of itch about two inches long right in the middle of my foot.

Do you have any other symptoms?

OC is very rare, you are very unlikely to have it.

You need to sleep. Wink

japhrimel · 09/11/2010 09:01

Stop panicking. Even if it was OC, it isn't a rush that early to get diagnosed today. And even if it is OC, the likelihood is that your blood results won't yet be positive as they usually take a while to react after the itching has started.

OC bloodwork is not routinely done. Some areas won't do Bile Acid levels (the best test for OC) unless you have typical itching - worse at night, possibly starting on hands & feet, and severe (e.g. stops you from sleeping, actually wakes you up) - AND you have some sign of jaundice or liver dysfunction, such as elevated LFTs, very yellow urine, yellow whites to your eyes, etc.

Try wearing cotton socks and moisturising your feet tonight in case it's dry skin or normal sweating - if that works, it isn't typical OC itching.

One foot itching a little bit is not typical of OC. If you're really worried, you could ask your MW or GP to run LFTs (Liver FUnction Tests) but they wouldn't be much use TBH - one negative test, especially of LFTs, does not exclude OC and as I mentioned, the blood results typically react some time after symptoms become severe.

I'd wait and see if moisturising & cotton socks stops it and whether it spreads. If it spreads to both feet and your hands/arms and becomes increasingly bothersome, then push to get properly tested.

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