X-ray revealed pregnancy

Pregnant women should avoid eating foods with high hormone content and also avoid participating in activities with excessive radiation. If the amount of radiation received during the growth of the fetus is too high, it will cause the fetus to develop abnormally, and there is a possibility of having a deformed baby. Many pregnant women are very scared when they find out they are pregnant after taking an X-ray. Will X-rays affect the baby?

Is it okay to find out that I'm pregnant a few days after taking an X-ray?

This should be fine, but you should be careful to stay away from places and objects with radiation. Fetuses between 4 and 22 weeks of gestation are most susceptible to ionizing radiation and malformations. Theoretically, a pregnant woman is likely to suffer from fetal malformations only if she receives a radiation dose of 5 to 15 rad.

Will a single diagnostic X-ray cause harm to the fetus?

Diagnostic X-ray examination, which is what we usually call X-ray examination, has a very low radiation dose, much lower than the therapeutic radiation dose. The therapeutic radiation dose is not within the scope of discussion in this article.

The period when the fetus is most sensitive to radiation is from 8 weeks to 25 weeks. If the radiation dose is less than 50 milligy (gy is a unit of radiation dose, 1gy equals 100 rad, 50 milligy equals 5 rad, which is 5000 milligy), it will not cause health effects to the fetus. If the radiation dose is higher than 100 milligy, health problems may occur. However, during diagnostic X-ray examinations, the radiation dose to the fetus is far from this standard.

According to data from the American College of Radiology and the American Society of Radiology, when a pregnant woman undergoes a single chest X-ray, the fetus in the abdomen is exposed to a radiation dose of 0.02-0.07 millirad; a single abdominal X-ray examination, the fetus is exposed to a radiation dose of 100 millirad; and a breast mammography examination, the fetus is exposed to a radiation dose of 7-20 millirad.

Generally, an X-ray will not cause much harm to the fetus. After all, this kind of radiation also needs to be quantified to a certain extent. It is difficult to tell to what extent a single X-ray can affect the human body. If you are still worried, you can go to the hospital for relevant examinations or listen to the doctor's advice. After all, pregnancy only happens once or twice in a lifetime, so be careful.

How long after a chest X-ray can a woman have a baby?

Chest X-ray has the largest amount of radiation among all X-ray examinations. One chest X-ray is equivalent to taking 10 X-ray examinations. However, sometimes we have to perform a chest X-ray in order to obtain more accurate data. Chest X-ray is a good way to check for abnormalities in the heart, liver, and lungs, and is one of the most important methods for detecting tuberculosis.

Since chest X-ray is harmful, is it more appropriate for women to have children after having a chest X-ray?

It takes a certain amount of time for a woman's egg cells to form, mature and then be released. Generally speaking, every woman can release an egg every month, and the egg can survive for 48 hours. But the formation of egg cells takes much longer. The doctor’s advice is that it is best to wait three months before trying to get pregnant.

Chest X-ray will expose the egg cells in a woman's body to radiation. If you get pregnant right after a chest X-ray, or if there is not enough time between the two, the fetus and the baby will be affected because the egg cells are unhealthy. Therefore, after having a chest X-ray, it is best for women to wait for three months according to the doctor's advice before preparing for pregnancy.