Itchy and panicking!

[Cotton22]

Hi all,

I'm 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby and the last day or so have begun to feel quite itchy. It comes and goes in waves and is mostly on my lower back, thighs and scalp. Stupidly I googled it and am now worried I've got OC - although it says this is only likely if it's severe itching. So now I'm double guessing myself - what's mild, what's severe, how bad do I think mine is?

Has anyone else experienced similar and am I stupid to be anxious?

I was itchy and really hoped I had OC because they could give me medication to make it stop. All the tests were negative. So there was no way to stop the itching. I slathered myself in cream, took cold showers, ice cubes to numb my skin, switched my soap powder, even bought new sheets, tried sleeping on the sofa. sleeping on a deck chair so the mattress wasn’t pressing on my skin... no relief. For six months I was so itchy I couldn’t sleep, every night I lay awake and scratched and cried until my skin bled and I literally dropped with exhaustion and finally slept. As soon as I gave birth the itching stopped immediately.

Thank you SosigDog. That doesn't sound fun - can imagine you did start to want a diagnosis!! Isn't OC quite serious though? Sorry I just panic about everything!! Overly anxious mum to be!

OC can be quite serious but my itching was so severe I was just desperate for any treatable diagnosis. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me though. Anyway my case proves that severe itching isn’t necessarily OC. You do need to get checked out though.

I had this all the way through my pregnancy and was tested many times but thankfully it wasn't anything very serious. Took me a couple of times going back and forth to my doctor but eventually they gave me a lotion and steriod cream that was a very low percentage so no damage to the baby! I applied it anytime I was itchy and after about a week it calmed down drastically!! I was still itchy here and there but nowhere near as bad as I was before the steriod cream just a normal itch that would go away with a wee scratch!

Thanks mumofone2818 hopefully mine will be similar!

I was really itchy around the same gestation and was worried as it is in our family but GP made me hang fire on getting tested as it is early for OC (he said) and that itching is due to rapid growth and skin struggling to keep up. I think he was more trying to ease my mind than anything else, and I'd have gone back if it had continued but sure enough by about 20 weeks I only itched a bit where my clothes touched the bump, the rest of it has eased off and has stayed that way to 30 weeks.

I had OC with my first pregnancy. It developed in the 3rd trimester though. The itching got so bad that I struggled to sleep and used to end up in the shower most nights as it gave me some relief. In addition to the medication I was prescribed a menthol cooling cream. I'd speak to your midwife/ doctor. They may be able to test you and hopefully give you something to relieve your symptoms. Good luck with your pregnancy!

I had OC in my pregnancy. It isn't serious as such because other than ending the pregnancy there isn't anything they can do to make it go away, it just means they keep an eye on you and in my case I had to get my bloods done twice a week to check the rising bile acids. They also gave me some medication to attempt to prevent the levels rising further plus aqueous cream to help ease the itching. OC tends to be worse at night and mainly on either the hands or feet, although it can be elsewhere on the body. I was completely fine during the day and then at night my feet (one in particular) took on a life of their own which is due to your liver being unable to break down the bile acids in a way that it normally would do.

Depending on how servere it is they may want to induce you once you get beyond 37 weeks. My trust has an "OC pathway" that you go on at 37 weeks to determine exactly when/if they need to get baby out, however, I don't actually have experience of this myself as baby came naturally at 36+6 & it was a weekend so wasn't due to move onto it until the Monday!

OC tends to manifest in later pregnancy (week 30+) so it'd be unlikely but not improbable that you're experiencing symptoms now. Mention it to your midwife and see what they say, although from experience you have to mention it loads for them to test your bloods. I had multiple appointments per week in the latter stages due to unrelated medical conditions and I said it about 3 or 4 times before anyone accepted it could be more than the standard pregnancy itching because it is very rare, and as I said even if they do diagnose it there's nothing they can actually do other than give you stuff to make you more comfortable whilst you wait it out.

Oh meant to add that it was around week 32/33 that I got diagnosed with it which again is common. My itching wasn't completely unbearable, I was nowhere near as bad as the people above who didn't have it as you can have OC with "light" itching.

Yes I had this and it drove me nuts. It turned out to just be one of those things and went away eventually.

I did get my bloods tested though to make sure it was nothing to worry about.