Women's Health: Most Common Physiologic and Pathologic Cutaneous Manifestations During Pregnancy

Pregnant women are susceptible to various physiological and pathological skin and body habitus changes during pregnancy due to the alterations that occur in a multi-organ-system fashion. Pregnancy can be the onset of different dermatological diseases and can exacerbate pre-existing cutaneous conditions. Moreover, management of dermatologic diseases during pregnancy might be challenging as it requires special attention to both mother and fetus. We aim to assess the most common cutaneous changes and conditions that occur during pregnancy by reviewing the previous studies conducted on this subject. The medical literature was explored through PubMed and Google scholar databases starting from 2015 to 2021. The included searching terms were a combination of "Cutaneous changes and pregnancy," Dermal conditions and pregnancy," Pregnancy-associated dermal conditions," and "Dermatological changes and pregnant women." The inclusion criteria included original articles conducted on pregnant women and full text- articles. A total of 134 articles were obtained, 11 articles were eligible for the inclusion criteria. The 11 studies included a total number of 14,813 pregnant women and covered four countries. The most common cutaneous conditions experienced by pregnant women were primarily physiological skin changes, pregnancy-specific dermatopathologies, and exacerbations of other common skin diseases. All in all, this systematic review concluded that pregnant women are more vulnerable to various dermatological conditions during pregnancy. These changes were more commonly physiological such as hyperpigmentations. However, pathological pregnancy-specific skin conditions and exacerbations of pre-existing dermatoses like atopic eruptions were also reported.