More than two thirds of all women will experience some degree or another of morning sickness. Their morning sickness can be as simple as occasional nausea, or it can be severe, as is the case with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, and accompanied by frequent and violent vomiting. Some women experience morning sickness in the morning, while others will experience it later in the day. A few lucky women won’t experience any morning sickness at all.

For something that is so commonplace, the fact remains that we know very little about what exactly it is that causes morning sickness. The leading theories tend to indicate that the changing levels of hormones in a woman’s body may contribute to morning sickness. This seems to be a likely scenario. There does seem to be a correlation between the time that the pregnancy hormone human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) rises and falls in a woman’s body, and when morning sickness tends to occur as well.

Around six weeks of pregnancy, a woman’s hCG will typically be high enough that it could start to trigger morning sickness. Those levels continue to rise for a few weeks. Around week eight or so of pregnancy, hCG levels tend to be at their highest. After this, they will start to decline. Right at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, around week twelve or so, those levels tend to drop back down to a lower level. This is where there could be a link between hCG and morning sickness.

There are other things besides hCG that may contribute to morning sickness. Other hormones, such as estrogen, change levels fairly rapidly during pregnancy as well. Some women experience a heightened sense of smell during pregnancy as well. For these women, it may not be the heightened sense of smell that is causing the morning sickness, but it certainly can trigger morning sickness.

Certainly, more research needs to be done in order to establish whether there is a definite link there between hCG and morning sickness.

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