[Salt taste perception in women during physiological pregnancy]

The authors studied a sensory intensity response to sodium chloride (NaCl) and a sensory hedonic response to salt in suprathreshold concentrations in 120 healthy primigravidas (age: 20-40) during three trimesters of physiological pregnancy, and in 22 healthy nonpregnant women of the same age examined on the 7th or 8th day of the menstrual cycle. In all the periods covered by the study, pregnant women have manifested a tendency to a lower intensity response to all concentrations in comparison with nonpregnant women. The weakening of the response has become statistically significant in the second trimester--with respect to low concentrations, and at the final stage of pregnancy--with respect to medium concentrations. The sensory hedonic response in pregnant women has been increasing along with the age of the fetus. In comparison with the response of nonpregnant women, pregnant women have shown a tendency to the intensified response in all the periods covered by the study.