Wife Pregnant, Having Breathing Issues

Mox

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My wife is expecting with our first child, and is at week 23. She got pregnant mid September and by the end of October had started to experience negative symptoms. Symptoms that started one month in and have been bothering her for her entire term so far are 1) shortness of breath and a persistent dry cough, 2) tachycardia, usually above 95 bpm resting, measured as high as 140 while doing light walking, 3) exhaustion and 4) gas. She also had nausea throughout her entire first trimester, at all times of the day, for which she took Zofran (Ondansetron). Nausea was her first symptom and started early October but had gone away by Christmas.

At this point, her shortness of breath and dry cough bother her the most. OBGYN and ER doctors can't explain it or the tachycardia. She's tried an antibiotic for pneumonia, emergency inhalers, nasal sprays, allergy OTC pills, nothing helps. Her breathing difficulty keeps getting worse, and she has some brief periods where she struggles to breathe. She never had breathing trouble before she was 1 month pregnant.

She saw a throat doctor last week who thought her breathing difficulty was caused by progesterone. Early in her term, I got her to take 5 drops of Progest-E twice daily sublingually for five weeks, from her fourth week pregnant to her nineth week. This was before she developed breathing problems and was only to try to help her nausea. At the time, she disliked the taste and said it made her feel worse. She found web articles that said progesterone won't help past the tenth week, so she stopped. I wanted to continue progesterone for the entire term, but it was obviously not helping her nausea alone and the only thing that brought relief was Zofran.

She says I poisoned her with Progest-E and partially blames her breathing difficulty on that, as the problem developed while taking Progest-E, and the throat doctor wanted to blame it too. I don't buy it. I think it's caused by elevated estrogen and other pregnancy-induced metabolic burdens, including elevated endotoxin and serotonin from recently increased digestive issues. I don't think she even took enough Progest-E to make a difference, especially compared to how much she gets from being pregnant now.

She's agreed to continue taking GNC Pre-Natal Multi No-Iron, Unique E capsules, calcium carbonate 600mg, and gelatin capsules daily. She'll also take raw carrots. She won't take fat soluble vitamins other than E or eat liver.

Her diet is mostly stews with turkey or pork, sweet potatoes and carrots, rice or peas or lentils. Also cereal and fruit smoothies which are her only sources of milk. Also eggs and variety of cheese. Earlier in her term she ate mostly sandwiches with sliced meat and cheese. I don't approve of any starch, but for the one week I got her to give up starch it didn't seem to reduce the gas that started since getting pregnant.

I'm wondering if anyone has more info about breathing difficulties in pregnancy, physiological causes and solutions? If it is estrogen, what are the best ways to combat estrogen during pregnancy?
 

Blossom

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This is certainly a tricky situation! I hope you get additional replies. Later in pregnancy the diaphragm can press up on the lungs partially restricting breathing which is normal although sometimes uncomfortable. That shouldn't cause her any breathing issues at only one month though.

She says I poisoned her with Progest-E and partially blames her breathing difficulty on that, as the problem developed while taking Progest-E, and the throat doctor wanted to blame it too. I don't buy it. I think it's caused by elevated estrogen and other pregnancy-induced metabolic burdens, including elevated endotoxin and serotonin from recently increased digestive issues. I don't think she even took enough Progest-E to make a difference, especially compared to how much she gets from being pregnant now.
I agree with you on this.
This thread might contain some useful information:
https://raypeatforum.com/community/posts/44699/
Good luck with the pregnancy!
 

InChristAlone

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Shortness of breath is a low thyroid/increased adrenaline symptom. For instance I get it when my blood sugar drops and adrenaline kicks in to bring it back up which comes with tachycardia as well. Anxiety can cause hyperventilation as well which makes you feel like you can't take a deep breath. She may need more of the minerals... salt... magnesium.. Keeping blood sugar stable. Lots and lots of sugar!
 

InChristAlone

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I thought of another thing that goes undiagnosed, vitamin b12 deficiency. Due to fortification and pushing folic acid on new mothers. So another good thing to start doing is liver.
 
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Mox

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Thank you all for the replies!

@Blossom
Yes I think she's suffering from acquired allergies or asthma, because she coughs as often as she has shortness of breath. I don't think it's a baby size issue, as it got bothersome pretty quickly and stayed pretty constant for the past couple months.

@Janelle525
I think you're right that low thyroid and adrenaline are involved. Her sleep has been getting worse while pregnant (and it was already pretty bad), so she has some serious stress hormones at work. I try to feed her sugar, and I pushed it a lot early when she got pregnant, but she doesn't want to gain too much weight, and has already gained an above average amount for her time spent pregnant. She has been enjoying fruit, usually in smoothies, but also some melon and cranberry juice and the occasional orange juice. I have fed her highly sugared coffee and hot chocolate and she says she feels high (in a good way) after taking those, which I think indicates she's still not getting enough sugar. I'll keep working on increasing sugar if she'll allow.

Thanks again all!
 

tara

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I'm not sure if this the will help, but it's possible, and if it does, it is simple and under her control.

Hyperventilation, even unaware, lowers CO2 levels. CO2 is needed for the O2 in the air we breath to get to the tissues and cells that need it. When CO2 gets too low, oxygen delivery can be too low. This feels like shortness of breath, even though it is caused by excessive breathing.
CO2 also tends to calm nerves, and help keep the airways open. Hyperventilation can make the nerves that trigger coughing more sensitive, as well as promoting swelling and mucous in the airways. Coughing can also blow away more CO2.
There might be other things going on, but if your wife is hyperventilating, it's possible she can do some do some simple things to address it, and that it can make a difference quite quickly.

Some first things to try:
Check that breathing is nasal. Mouth breathing usually involves hyperventilation. Consider taping mouth at night if there is mouth breathing at night.Grease on lips to ease morning removal, and just a little tape - not sealing whole mouth.
Practice relaxing and calming breath whenever you think about it.
After every cough, hold breath briefly - just long enough to get slightly uncomfortable, not stressful. You can repeat this as often as you like, and see if it's helpful. I usefd to get persistent dry coughs dragging on for weeks after every cold I got. This technique stops it very quickly for me.
Take walks with mouth closed. Allow a slight feeling of air hunger, but not too stressful. If there is no air hunger with gentle walking, try some short breath holds, or try deliberately slowing down breathing, or walk up a slope.

Not during pregnancy particularly, but I had a patch when I was waking up with pounding heart and hyperventilation (and sometimes sweats). Some of the things I think helped me included attending to breathing, increasing sugar, progesterone supplement, and minerals - I'm not sure if it was magnesium or calcium or both that made a difference, because I took them together. .

I'd caution against pushing your wife to do anything she doesn't want to or doesn't understand the reason for. If you can offer her some information in a way that she can be interested in, maybe she will choose to try some tactics that seem most relevant or doable for her. Your marriage is probably worth more than any gains you might make by pushing her against her will, and as you've seen, there are risks if your hunches don't work out as obvious successes.
 

SarahBeara

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Oh this is so weird, I was reading about all these symptoms the other day. Sounds like bile reflux:

Bile reflux Symptoms - Mayo Clinic

It can also cause breathlessness. There was another post on the forum recently that recommended sucrafate for this. Not sure about its safety in pregnancy, but worth asking about.

Also would explain tachycardia due to irritated vagus nerve. Do the symptoms get especially worse after eating?
 
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jaguar43

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Progesterone can cause symptoms of hyperthyroidism according to Ray Peat. So it could cause the fast heartbeat, but it doesn't necessarily mean it bad or unhealthy. Does she have a goiter or enlarged neck ?

Ray Peat think salt is an important mineral for keeping blood volume up during pregnancy. Nausea can be cause by low blood sugar. She may need more sugar ( fruit, table sugar, juices) to help her thought out the day.

She shouldn't need those vitamins if she is eating regularly milk, liver, and oysters. Vitamin E can be helpful and progesterone as well. But those vitamins and supplements can interact to increase the effects of progesterone so the faster heartbeat and the fatigue increases . My opinion would try to work her off the pre-natal and calcium supplements and have her eat more milk, cheese, liver, oysters. I would exchange the gelatin capsules for great lakes gelatin powder so it the dose can be more adjusted. Keeping progesterone and vitamin E is a good idea, but the progesterone has vitamin E so I would take that into consideration.

I would try to get her off Zofran (if she is still on) because there are mix reviews on it's safety during pregnancy.
 

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