Hormones are messengers. Pregnancy is the stress test.

Conventional medicine distinguishes HG by severity of symptoms (weight loss, dehydration, hospitalization, ketones, etc.) and often points the cause toward hormonal shifts, genetic predisposition, elevated GDF15 levels, and HCG sensitivity. While these pieces matter, they do not tell the full story.

The deeper question is this:

Why does one woman's body adapt to pregnancy with relative ease while another experiences relentless nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, and physiological distress?

Through both my clinical background and my own experience with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, I have come to see hyperemesis as a multifactorial stress response occurring within a body already operating with reduced reserves before pregnancy begins.

Pregnancy dramatically increases demand on every system in the body. When those systems are already strained, severe symptoms often emerge.

In my work, I look beyond the symptom itself and explore the terrain underneath it.

This includes factors such as mineral depletion, nutrient deficiencies, liver and gallbladder stress, digestive dysfunction, impaired gut motility, blood sugar instability, nervous system overload, inflammatory burden, emotional stress, unresolved trauma, environmental exposures, and the cumulative effects of modern life on the female body. Not every woman with HG has the same root causes, but many women experience a combination of these factors simultaneously.

Women deserve more than symptom suppression. They deserve to understand what systems are under strain and how to support the underlying physiology contributing to those symptoms.

My goal is not to fight the body's signals. My goal is to help women understand them and support her body, naturally!

One of the biggest conversations in the HG world right now is around genetics and a hormone called GDF15. Research has found that women with HG often have differences in how their bodies respond to GDF15, a hormone that rises during pregnancy and can influence nausea and appetite. While I believe this research is valuable, I do not believe it proves that GDF15 or genetics are the root cause of HG.

To me, GDF15 is more likely a messenger than the problem itself. We know that every woman experiences rising pregnancy hormones, yet not every woman develops HG. We also know that some women have severe HG in one pregnancy and a much easier experience in another. If genetics alone were the cause, it becomes difficult to explain why symptoms can change so dramatically from one pregnancy to the next, or why I see incredible improvements in symptoms among many women while they are still actively pregnant.

GDF15 is described as a stress-response protein. It is produced in greater amounts when the body experiences mitochondrial stress, metabolic strain, inflammation, or other forms of physiological challenge. One prevailing theory suggests that women who have very low exposure to GDF15 before pregnancy (which would imply they have low levels of mitochondrial stress, metabolic strain, inflammation) may be more sensitive to the dramatic rise that occurs once pregnancy begins. 

While this is an intriguing hypothesis, it does not fully align with the women I commonly see in practice. Many arrive with years of signs suggesting that the body has already been under significant stress, nutrient depletion, digestive dysfunction, blood sugar instability, chronic inflammation, toxic burden, burnout, or nervous system dysregulation. 

Rather than viewing GDF15 as the cause, I see it as a signal that the body is responding to a much bigger physiological picture and I choose to support that!