Background: Pregnancy is associated with an increased incidence of heartburn. However, there is no information for other symptoms related to gastro-esophageal reflux (GOR).
Aim: to assess the prevalence of atypical symptoms of GOR during pregnancy, and to examine its association with typical GOR symptoms.
Methods: we report data for 263 women with a pregnancy of less than 12 weeks. They were interviewed at the end of each trimester of pregnancy and at 1-year post-partum, using the Gastro Esophageal Reflux Questionnaire (GERQ). In the first interview, information about symptoms in the year before pregnancy was also collected with GERQ.
Results: women suffered atypical GOR symptoms during pregnancy more frequently than in the year before: non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) (9.1 vs. 1.9%), dysphagia (12.6 vs. 2.3%), globus (33.1 vs. 4.6%), cough (26.6 vs. 6.8%), belching (66.2 vs. 19.4%) and hiccups (19.0 vs. 8.4%). Atypical GOR symptoms in pregnancy showed an association with suffering the same symptom before pregnancy and NCCP, globus, belching and hiccups with suffering typical GOR symptoms in the first trimester.
Conclusions: Atypical GOR symptoms are highly prevalent in pregnancy, and are associated with atypical symptoms before pregnancy and with typical symptoms of GOR in the first trimester.