Pregnancy comes with a lot of less-than-desirable symptoms, but at least we can count on ‘pregnancy glow.’ Glowing, vibrant skin is soon to be ours, right? Not always.
Thanks to your body’s changing hormones you may instead experience mask of pregnancy or chloasma. In this common pregnancy condition, women develop dark skin patches. The darkened skin can appear around the upper lip, nose, cheekbones or forehead and the patches often take the shape of a mask because the discoloration appears on both sides of the face. While these patches do usually fade after giving birth, they can remain frustrating up until then.
Who gets the mask of pregnancy?
There is not an exact science behind why some women get mask of pregnancy and others don’t since each woman’s response to pregnancy hormones is unique. Still, studies do reveal some insight.
For instance, if your mom experienced the mask of pregnancy you may also develop it as the condition does seem to be hereditary. If you had the condition in a previous pregnancy it may become more pronounced in the next pregnancy and with each pregnancy afterward. Mask of pregnancy also will typically occur more often in women with dark complexions.